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Program of exercises for North Carolina Day

Program of community service and North Carolina Day, Friday, October 29, 1915 : School and Neighborhood Improvement Day with plans and suggestions for the organization and conduct of a moonlight school in every school district

PROGRAM
COMMUNITY SERVICE
NORTH CAROLINA DAY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1915
SCHOOL AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT DAY
PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF
A MOONLIGHT SCHOOL IN EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT. TO TEACH
ALL ADULTS THEREIN TO READ AND WRITE, AS THE
FIRST AND MOST URGENT COMMUNITY SER-VICE
OF EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD
ISSUED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
RALEIGH. 1915
STATE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY SERVICE.
J. Y. JOYNER
W. A. Graham
E. K. Graham
Mrs. T. W. Lingle
Clarence Poe, Chairman
W. C. Crosby, Secretary
J. I. Foust
H. Q. Alexander
D. H. Hill
Paul Jones
J. Walter Long
COOPERATING WITH
The State Department of Education
The State Department of Agriculture
The State Farmers' Union
W. S. Rankin
T. B. Parker
W. J. Shuford
A. W. McAlister
PREFACE.
Chapter 164 of the Public Laws of 1901 directs that one day in each and
every year, to be called "North Carolina Day," shall "be devoted, by appropri-ate
exercises in the public schools of the State, to the consideration of some
topic or topics of our State history, to be selected by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction."
Instead of devoting the day to a consideration of a topic relating to the
past history of the State, I have deemed it wise to devote it again this year
to the consideration of the condition and the needs of the school and of the
community and to the formulation and inauguration of plans for their improve-ment.
These topics do not relate to the past history of the State, but they
are separable from its present and future history, and the consideration of
them is in keeping with the spirit of the law. "North Carolina Day" will be
celebrated, therefore, this year, on Friday, October 29, as "School and Neigh-borhood
Improvement Day"
In the program for the day special emphasis has been placed upon the re-duction
and elimination of adult illiteracy in every school district through a
"Moonlight School" as the first simple, definite, urgent community service to
be rendered.
The date has been fixed for Friday of the week immediately preceding No-vember,
which will be observed throughout the State as "Moonlight School
Month" in the hope that "North Carolina Day" may be used this year to pro-mote
this commendable movement and to complete the arrangements for a
moonlight school in each school district in which may reside any adults that
cannot read and write.
In counties that may have selected some other month as "Moonlight School
Month" it is suggested that "North Carolina Day" shall be observed on Friday
of the week immediately preceding the opening of the "Moonlight Schools."
To complete the organization and plans for conducting successfully the cam-paign
for wiping out adult illiteracy, a joint meeting of the County Committee
on Community Service and the County Teachers' Association in every county
is suggested, to be held before North Carolina Day and before the beginning
of Moonlight School Month. A suggested program for this joint meeting will
be found in this bulletin. County superintendents are urged to arrange at
once for this meeting.
Very truly yours,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, N. C, October, 1915.
5 C V H-"3j
GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION, DESIGNATING NOVEMBER AS
"MOONLIGHT SCHOOL MONTH."
Whereas there are in North Carolina 132,000 men and women, boys and girls,
over 10 years of age who cannot read and write—an army greater in number
than was sent by North Carolina to the service of the Confederate States—and
14 per cent of the white voters are reported in the census as illiterates, the
State in this particular standing practically at the bottom of the roll of
States ; and
Whereas it is largely because they lacked opportunity, largely because they
"had no chance," that these people, brothers and sisters of ours, are illiterate
today, growing up as they did in the years of war and reconstruction, and
the years of poverty that followed, before the State had provided adequate
schools or thoroughly realized its duty to provide facilities whereby every
child may "burgeon out all there is within him" ; and
Whereas the State has now come to a poignant realization of its duty not
only to provide schools for the boys and girls of today, but also to open the
doors of knowledge, of hope, and of opportunity for all who were neglected in
her days of poverty ; and
Whereas, while our illiterate people as a whole have bravely and persever-ingly
achieved usefulness, success, good citizenship, and high character, despite
their terrible handicap, we can but feel how infinitely greater would have been
their achievements, how infinitely richer their contribution to the life of our
Commonwealth, had they but had the keys of learning in their hands ; and
while our State through patient struggle has won its way out toward pros-perity
and civic progress, we can but reflect upon the far, far greater progress
we should make were all our people educated ; and
Whereas, through the "Moonlight School," as we are assured by the experi-ence
of Kentucky and by the experience of numerous counties in our own State,
the method is at hand as outlined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction
and the State Committee on Community Service, whereby we may carry the
immeasurable benefits of education to all who were neglected or neglectful in
their youth
:
Therefore, I, Locke Craig, Governor of North Carolina, do issue this my
proclamation to designate the month of November, 1915, as "Moonlight School
Month" in North Carolina, and set it apart to be devoted to the high purpose of
beginning a crusade to eliminate illiteracy from the State, trusting that the
movement then begun will not cease until every unlettered man and woman,
North Carolina Day. 5
boy and girl, is given access through reading to all the wealth of knowledge
now sealed to them, to the end that North Carolina, long before another census
year, may be a State without adult illiterates.
I, therefore, call upon the citizens, teachers and educational authorities of
every county to organize for the purpose of eliminating adult illiteracy from
that county ; and
I call upon the members of the Farmers' Union, the Press Association, the
Junior Order, the Federation of Women's Clubs, and all the other organizations
that have already enlisted in the cause, to be unfaltering in their splendid pur-pose
to carry it through to a triumphant conclusion ; and I call upon the com-mercial
organizations, boards of trade, civic clubs, religious organizations, Sun-day-
schools, and all organizations everywhere to give loyal, enthusiastic aid and
support to a movement whose success will promote the welfare of every indi-vidual
in the State and bring new confidence and courage to all the people
;
and I call upon every man and every woman who craves the sacred privilege
of being of greatest service to those in greatest need, to render here the infi-nite
service of bringing new freedom to a human mind.
Done in our city of Raleigh on the 9th day of October, in the year of our
Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen, and in the one hundred and
fortieth year of our American Independence.
<ffi-£>JU_ UZ^^l
Governor
By the Governor:
J. P. Kerb,
Private Secretary.
MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS.
Letter to Superintendents and Teachers by State Superintendent of
Public Instruction.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY EVERY LINE OF THIS LETTER.
To Superintendents and Teachers:—I have been greatly gratified and deeply
touched by the enthusiastic and unselfish response of the superintendents and
teachers of the State to the call to volunteer for extra service in organizing
and conducting moonlight schools to teach our too long neglected adult illiter-ates
to read and write. When this bulletin went to press five thousand
teachers had already voluntarily pledged themselves in writing to teach with-out
compensation for at least one month in the moonlight schools of the State.
I have no doubt that if others shall be needed for the work, they, too, will
readily respond. Such a record should make every teacher of the State
prouder of his profession and should challenge the admiration, as it merits
the gratitude, of every good citizen.
This is educational work the success of which is necessarily dependent
mainly upon the active leadership and wise direction of superintendents and
teachers. The newspapers of the State, the fraternal and civic organizations
of every sort, like the Farmers' Union, the Junior Order of United American
Mechanics, the Women's Clubs, have pledged their active and enthusiastic sup-port
to this commendable campaign for the reduction and elimination of illit-eracy.
Rally all of these agencies to your assistance in organizing and direct-ing
the moonlight schools in your counties and school districts, and especially
in interesting and enrolling in your schools the men and women who cannot
read and write.
I beg to make the following suggestions
:
1. Get from the school census the names and addresses of all illiterates
in the district. With the aid of the school committee, and others well ac-quainted
with the residents of the district, verify, and, if necessary, correct
and complete this list.
2. See to it that every one of them receives a sympathetic, tactful, and earn-est
personal invitation to attend. Select the right person to give this personal
invitation to each—some neighbor, some friend, some fellow-member of church
or fraternal order, some one that has the confidence and friendship of the per-son
invited and knows how to approach him.
3. Many illiterates are naturally sensitive over their inability to read and
write. Respect their feelings. Let the invitation be extended and all the other
work of the schools for them be conducted in a spirit of sympathetic brother-hood,
good fellowship, and democratic equality. In word and act, avoid every-thing
that may smack of condescension, pity, smug superiority. These are our
brothers and fellow-citizens—in the eyes of God and the State as good as we
are—suffering under the handicap of illiteracy for which most of them are
not responsible, because in childhood they had no opportunity to go to school
Noeth Carolina Day. 7
or had nobody in authority over them sufficiently appreciative of its importance
to make them use the opportunity to go to school. It is our duty and our
privilege to help them help themselves to remove this handicap, for their own
sake and for the State's sake, before it is forever too late. In this spirit
should this work for them and with them be done.
4. By resolution adopted unanimously by the North Carolina Press Associa-tion
at its recent meeting, the newspapers of the State pledged themselves to
print, a week in advance, the lessons in reading and arithmetic for each week,
and to send free to each pupil of a moonlight school in the county for a month
a copy of the county paper containing these lessons. They also agreed to print
weekly a brief news letter from each neighborhood in which a moonlight school
is taught, containing interesting items about the school and other news of the
neighborhood, expressed in words and sentences comprehensible to adult be-ginners
in reading.
The county superintendent and the teacher of each school should furnish
the editor of the county paper the names and addresses of all pupils enrolled
and should make arrangements with some reliable person in each district to
send this letter to the paper each week. The pupils should be instructed to
bring the paper with them to school each night, that it may be used for reading
the lessons and the news letters, and for general supplementary reading.
Bulletins containing the lessons have been printed and furnished the county
superintendent for free distribution through the teachers, upon application, to
each pupil of a moonlight school ; but these cannot take the place of the county
paper. It is important that the county paper should be placed in their hands
from the first, to interest them, to stimulate their desire to learn to read, that
they may read their home paper like other folks and keep up with what is
going on in their county and in the world ; to cultivate from the first the use-ful
habit of reading their home paper ; to furnish, as they begin" to learn to
read, an abundant supply each week of the best and most interesting material
for supplementary reading. Most of them, as soon as they begin to acquire
the power to read, will read each week everything in the paper that they can
read. Each night extracts from the paper should be read aloud to the pupils
by the teacher, and as soon as possible by the pupils themselves. Most of the
pupils learning to read will become permanent subscribers to the county paper
and keep up their practice in reading. So far as I know, North Carolina is
the only State in which this cooperative plan with the county newspaper's in
teaching illiterates to read has been suggested or in which this generous offer
has been made by the papers. I am exceedingly anxious that it shall have a
fair trial, because I am confident that it will contribute greatly to the success
and to the permanency of this work.
5. Upon application to the State Superintendent, bulletins containing twelve
lessons—three a week for four weeks—in reading, in arithmetic, and in writ-ing,
prepared especially by the State Department of Public Instruction, with
the aid and criticism of some of the most experienced and successful primary
teachers of the State, some of whom had had experience in teaching adults,
will be furnished county superintendents in sufficient number to supply each
pupil enrolled with one copy. Superintendents are urged to order at once the
number needed, but not to order more than will be needed.
8 Community Service.
A teachers' edition of the same bulletin, containing valuable suggestions to
teachers for teaching the lessons, will be furnished through the county super-intendent
to each teacher of a moonlight school. The county superintendent
is urged to order at once from the State Superintendent's office the number
of teachers' bulletins needed for his county, and to send at once to the teacher
of each moonlight school a copy of the teachers' bulletin and a sufficient num-ber
of the pupils' bulletin to supply each pupil with a copy.
6. Copies of the bulletin containing the lessons by weeks will also be sent to
the editor of each county newspaper, but the county superintendent is ex-pected
and urged to see the editor personally, explain the plan to him, and
arrange for him separately by weeks, with the date of the publication of each,
the lessons to be published each week.
7. The county superintendent and teacher, in cooperation with the school
committee, the various community organizations, and others interested, are
urged to arrange some social entertainments in connection with the moon-light
schools, participated in by the pupils and by other citizens, to add to the
interest and happiness of the pupils, and to afford an opportunity for all to
get together and for an expression of interest and encouragement from out-siders.
The pupils of these schools should be made to feel at home from the
first, and also to feel that they are a part of the community in whom the other
part of the community are deeply interested.
8. November has been designated as Moonlight School Month in North Caro-lina,
because that seemed to be the most convenient month for the majority
of the counties of the State. If, however, some other month is more con-venient
for your county, select that month. Be sure, however, to select a
month when the weather is likely to be pleasant and the roads in good condi-tion.
During November, or such other month as may be selected, concentrate
public interest and effort upon this one work of teaching the adults of your
county to read and write. Rally to the work your newspapers, all organiza-tions
that have pledged their aid, and all other agencies that can be enlisted
for service. Have the papers full of it every week. See that they are fur-nished
with the facts and the news about the schools. Publish, before the
schools open, the number, but not the names, of adult illiterates by school dis-tricts.
Publish each week the number, but not the names, of those enrolled
in each school. As soon as possible, for the encouragement of others, publish
from week to week the number and, by their permission, the names of those
that* have learned to read and write and cipher. Most of this news can be
supplied weekly through the news letter from each school, and should also
be reported to the county superintendent by the teacher. The superintendent
and the teachers should keep in close touch with the paper and see that the
weekly material is promptly supplied.
9. Superintendents are urged to call a joint meeting of the County Teachers'
Association and the County Committee on Community Service, consisting of
the county superintendent, the county farm demonstration agent, the home
demonstration agents, the president or secretary of the County Farmers'
Union, editors of the county newspapers, the mayor of the county-seat, one
representative each of the Junior Order and of the Women's Clubs of the
county, two weeks before the beginning of Moonlight School Month in the
county, to ascertain the facts about the adult illiteracy of the county by dis-
North Carolina Day. 9
tricts as reported by superintendent and teachers, and to complete the organ-ization
and plans for pushing the campaign and the work for its elimination.
A suggested program for this meeting will be found on page 1(3.
10. The program for Community Service Day and North Carolina Day this
year centers around the moonlight school and the elimination of illiteracy
in every school district as the one most important community service to be
concentrated upon this year. It is suggested that this day be observed in
each county, on the Friday before the opening of the moonlight schools, and
that on that day at each schoolhouse all the details for opening and success-fully
conducting the school be completed.
11. Because of their onerous duties in the day schools and their inadequate
salaries, I did not feel that I ought to ask or that the community ought to
expect of the public school teachers more than one month's extra service at
night without compensation. It is hoped and expected, however, that before
the close of the month sufficient interest will be aroused and sufficient suc-cess
attained in many of the moonlight schools to warrant extending the
term, and that citizens and interested organizations and orders in the commu-nity
will arrange for such extension and for payment of the teacher or some
other person to continue the school, and also to provide, where feasible, instruc-tion
for other adults, besides illiterates, desiring additional instruction.
Very truly yours, j Y. Joyner,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, N. C, October, 1915.
SECTION I.
GENERAL STATEMENT OF PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS.
Last year a week was set apart and observed throughout the State of North
Carolina as Community Service Week. The varied activities of the week were
devoted to Community Development and County Progress. Unfortunately, the
week appointed was late in the year, and bad weather seriously interfered
with the work ; nevertheless, the response was general and hearty. From one
end of the State to the other—in almost every nook and corner—despite the
rain, our people met and planned and worked in practical ways to make our
great State greater.
Although the results achieved last year in these varied activities were ex-tremely
gratifying, the State Committee on Community Service thinks it best,
this year, to make the work more intensive—in fact, to concentrate all the force
and power of the State organization upon one thing only, the elimination of
adult illiteracy in North Carolina ; and, instead of using a week for the pur-pose,
a whole month has been set apart, during which it is hoped that a moon-light
school will be conducted in every school district in the State where there
are grown people who cannot read and write.
Moonlight schools were at first looked upon as the sentimental "fad" of a
woman ; but the whole country has come now to take them very seriously.
From a small beginning in Kentucky four years ago, the movement has spread
like wildfire into a dozen States. The most remarkable thing about the his-tory
of the movement, however, is not its scope, but the tardy recognition of
the human and civic need that inspired it.
Although night schools have long been considered necessary—and have been
generously provided—for the hordes of illiterate foreigners that have reached
our shores under liberal immigration acts, it is only within recent months that
our people have been aroused to the urgent need of such schools for the illit-erates
of our adult native population—our own kith and kin—whose stout
and honest hearts, with a little knowledge, become the safest strongholds of
American patriotism and civic righteousness.
But this bulletin is not intended as an argument for moonlight schools nor
as a statement of our problem of adult illiteracy. It simply outlines the de-tails
of the plan for organizing and conducting these schools for one month, to
which is added the program and material for the observance of North Carolina
Day in the schools. Those who wish to see a statement of North Carolina's
problem of adult illiteracy, with an unanswerable argument for its elimina-tion,
should apply to the State Department of Education for free copies of the
bulletin, Adult Illiteracy in North Carolina and Plans for Its Elimination.
By proclamation of the Governor and recommendation of the State Superin-tendent
of Public Instruction, November of this year has been set apart as
"Moonlight School Month" in North Carolina. Every person in the State is asked
to join in this glorious work, but since it is very largely a work which the
local school forces must do, it is evident that it cannot be done successfully in
any county when the schools in that county are not practically all in session.
Therefore, flexibility is allowed for those counties which wish to begin the
work a little earlier or a little later than first of November. It is hoped that
North Carolina Day. 11
every county in the State will observe Moonlight School Month, beginning as
near the first of November as local conditions will permit and making it as
nearly uniform for the entire county as possible.
In waging the campaign for a successful Moonlight School Month in a
county, the first necessary step is a thorough organization of forces, both
county and local.
The county forces should consist of a County Committee on Community
Service whose duty it will be to have general oversight of the work in the
county, giving due publicity to the campaign, and arousing interest and enthu-siasm
for the cause in every way possible. This committee should consist of
the county superintendent (who should be secretary), the county farm demon-stration
agent, the home demonstration agent, the secretary or president of
the County Farmers' Union, editors of the county newspapers, the mayor of
the county-seat, one representative each from the Junior Order and the
Women's Clubs of the county. These should meet (if they have not already
done so) as early as possible and organize the committee and appoint such
additional members as may seem advisable. They should also appoint (if
they have not already done so) a local Committee on Community Service for
each school district in the county. The local committee should include the
teacher, the chairman of the local school committee, the president of the Local
Farmers' Union, and heads of other local fraternal orders, and two or three
other public-spirited citizens of the community, some of whom should be
women.
To give publicity to the movement in the county and to create interest and
arouse enthusiasm for it, a general meeting is planned, to be conducted by the
County Committee in conjunction with the County Teachers' Association, to
which will be invited all members of local Community Service committees,
members of Farmers' Union, Junior Order, Women's Clubs, and as many other
people as can be induced to attend. The program for the meeting will be
found on page 16 of this bulletin ; the date is, of course, left to the discretion
of the County Committee, but it is suggested that it be held not more than two
weeks before the beginning of Moonlight School Month in the county.
There will also be a meeting in each local school district, which will be held
on Friday immediately preceding the beginning of the first week of Moonlight
School Month in the county. At this meeting will be observed "North Caro-lina
Day," as prescribed by law, the program for which will be found on page
17, and following, of this bulletin.
The strategic and most difficult point in this crusade against adult illiteracy
will be to induce the illiterates to enroll in the night school and attend its
sessions regularly. They are timid and sensitive and many of them almost
utterly hopeless of being able to learn at their time of life, even if they should
avail themselves of the opportunity. They must, therefore, be approached with
great tact, sympathy, and considerate patience. If failure attends one effort
to enlist them, another should be resorted to ; no refusal must be accepted as
final. Quietly, without bluster or parade, and with tactful importunity they
must be won, enrolled, and taught.
A most important step before beginning a moonlight school is to make an
accurate survey of all adult illiterates in the district. This should be done
not only with the view of locating them, but reliable information should be
12 Community Service.
sought as to just what person or persons might be able to influence each one
most, and what motivation would be apt to be most powerful in stimulating them
to a desire to learn to read and write. There is no one who cannot be influ-enced
by the proper person or motive, if only the person or motive is known.
One principal reports that he visited a certain illiterate several times, trying
to enroll him in a moonlight school which was being conducted in the commu-nity,
but failed completely to get him in. He finally sent another illiterate
who had already entered the school—and he brought him to school that very
night. There is always some way to reach any person, if only we use judg-ment
and patience. It may be the love of a little child ; it may be the influ-ence
of a friend ; it may be the desire to write a letter to an absent loved one
;
it may be pride ; it may be the wish to read the Bible. But no hard and fast
rule can be given, for each one- is a law unto himself. The means by which
illiterates are brought into the school does not matter ; the all-important thing
is not to give up till you get them in and interested.
No curious spectators should be allowed to be present on nights when the
school is at work, most especially the first half of the "Month."
According to rather meager statistics gathered last year, the average age of
adult illiterates in North Carolina is 45. The expectation of life at that age, ac-cording
to the American Mortality Experience Table, is 24.54 years. Since 45 is
the average age, there must be many who are much younger than that, which
would materially lengthen the time when we should expect death to remove
them. From this it will be seen that if we wait for time alone to remove the
stigma of adult illiteracy from our State, a full half century will probably be
required. Can we afford to wait? A vigorous campaign for the moonlight
school is the only alternative, and that should be our answer to the question.
North Carolina Day. 13
TABLE A.
Percentage of Illiterate White Voters, by Counties, in Order of Rank.
Counties.
20
21
22
23
24
25
26 i
27 I
28
28
30
30 !
30 I
30
34
34 !
36 I
36 !
38 I
39
40
41
41 ;
43
43
43
46
47
;
48
49
50 I
New Hanover.
Mecklenburg.
.
Washington. __
Dare
Pasquotank _
.
Rowan
Craven
Vance
Graham
Iredell
Perquimans.
.
Richmond
Guilford
Durham
Pender
Bertie
Buncombe
Halifax
Alamance
Moore
Currituck
Anson
Henderson
Alleghany
Orange
Wake
Lee
Cabarrus
Forsyth
Hyde
McDowell
Transylvania.
Warren
Catawba
Pamlico
Cumberland..
Wayne
Randolph
Union
Gates
Beaufort
Hoke
Chatham
Edgecombe..
Haywood
Franklin
Gaston
Bladen
Granville
Lincoln
3
4.4
6.2
6.8
7.5
9.1
9.1
9.3
9.5
9.6
9.7
9.8
10.1
10.1
10.3
10.6
10.7
10.8
11
11.1
11.2
11.3
11.5
11.7
12
12
12.1
12.1
12.1
12.1
12.5
12.5
12.6
12.6
12.9
13
13.3
13.5
13.5
13.7
13.7
13.7
13.8
14
14.1
14.2
14.3
Counties.
50 Robeson
52 Rockingham..
53 Harnett
54 Chowan
55 Hertford
56 Northampton.
57 I Davidson
58 I Caswell
58 i Pitt
60 Brunswick
60 Cleveland
62 ; Carteret
63 Lenoir
63 i Onslow
65 Jones
66 Polk
67 ! Rutherford.. _.
67 i Watauga _.
100
Wilson
Macon
Martin
Montgomery
Tyrrell
Nash
Stanly
Alexander
—
Jackson
Sampson....
Ashe
Johnston. ...
Person
Scotland
Camden
Duplin
Swain
Clay
Burke
Caldwell
Greene
Davie.
Yadkin
Columbus...
Madison
Yancey
Cherokee
Wilkes
Surry .-
Mitchell
Avery
Stokes
PkU
14.3
14.4
14.5
14.9
15
15.1
15.2
15.3
15.3
15.4
15.4
15.6
15.7
15.7
15.8
16
16.1
16.1
16.3
16.4
16.9
16.9
17
17.2
17.3
17.5
17.5
17.5
17.6
17.6
17.6
17.9
18
18
18
18.1
18.2
18.8
18.9
19.2
19.6
20.1
21.7
21.7
21.9
22.7
23.2
24.1
24.5
26.9
14 Community' Service.
TABLE B.
Comparison of Total White Population and Total Number of White
Illiterates, Arranged by Counties, in Order of Rank.
5
Counties.
Total
White
Persons
Over
10
Years
Old.
Total
White
Illiterates
10
Years
Old
and
Over.
Percentage
White
Illiter-ates
10
Years
Old
and
Over.
The State 1,077,063
12,505
30,628
3,993
6,117
3,940
20,261
19,257
8,176
3,134
33,310
7,006
3,736
30,211
17,155
7,611
6,806
4,987
4,279
5,583
10,054
5,740
15,977
8,753
14,613
28, 102
8,088
5,266
8,190
7,674
9,374
3,111
4,678
17,203
3,693
10,359
24,755
12,871
4,469
10,990
14,682
12,780
16,490
9,413
9,233
14,384
5,364
18,850
4,651
9,083
3,839
132,189
403
1,398
237
373
279
1,485
1,445
622
238
2,606
559
298
2,445
1,048
625
556
413
357
469
866
508
1,489
838
1,401
2,749
794
524
829
776
943
318
479
1,819
392
1,111
2,702
1,419
492
1,218
1,625
1,417
1,867
1,075
1,048
1,652
623
2,188
543
1,067
458
12.3
1 3.2
? 4.6
3
4
Washington 5.9
6.1
5
6
Perquimans 7.1
7.3
7 Iredell 7.5
8 7.6
8 7.6
10 Guilford 7.8
11 8
11 8
13
14
Buncombe 8.1
8.2
14 8.2
14 Vance _________ __ _____ _______ 8.2
17 8.3
17 8.3
19 8.4
20 Halifax 8.6
21 Lee _ _________ 8.9
22 Alamance.,. _ __ ... ... ... _.._.. 9.3
33 Anson 9.6
23 9.6
25 Wake __ _ _ _ 9.8
as McDowell _ _ _ 9.8
27 Alleghany. _ . _____ _ _ _ 10
28 Moore 10.1
28 Richmond. _ ___ __ ._ ... __.___-. 10.1
28
31
Granville 10.1
10.2
31 Hertford..
.
10.2
33
33
Catawba
Chowan
10.6
10.6
35
36
Henderson
Forsyth. _.
10.7
10.9
37
37
Beaufort
Pamlico
11
11
39
39
39
Chatham
Cumberland
Pitt
11.1
11.1
11.1
42 Union 11.3
43
43
45
46
Franklin
Edgecombe
Cabarrus
Caswell
11.4
11.4
11.5
11.6
46
48
Randolph
Transylvania ...
11.6
11.7
48 Lenoir 11.7
50 Hyde 11.9
ISTorth Carolina Day. 15
TABLE B—Continued.
Counties.
51 Northampton.
52 Person
53 Bladen
53 Rockingham..
55 Harnett
55 Lincoln
57 Jones
58 Camden
59 Macon
60 Davidson
60 Haywood
62 Carteret
62 Robeson
64 Onslow
64 Wilson
66 Duplin
67 Sampson
68 Cleveland
68 Montgomery..
70 Gaston
71 Martin
72 Watauga
73
73
75
Alexander .
.
Tyrrell
Polk
75 Greene
77 Jackson
77 Nash
77 Rutherford
.
80 Stanly
81 Ashe
82 Davie
83 Johnston...
83 Burke
85 Brunswick..
86 Clay
87 Caldwell....
88 Swain
88 Yadkin
90 Scotland....
91 I Madison
92 Surry
93 Cherokee...
94 i Columbus..
94 Yancey
96 ; Stokes
97 Wilkes
Mitchell
6,919
7,147
6,944
18,709
11,130
10,150
3,258
2,511
8,056
18,394
14,241
8,470
17,518
6,951
11,682
11,647
14,151
16,925
7,857
20,262
6,457
9,311
7,542
2,650
4,566
4,842
8,260
14,073
16,933
12,237
12,831
8,100
21,730
13,431
6,357
2,675
12,751
6,376
10,111
5,104
13,530
18,774
9,411
13,583
8,199
11,965
19,399
11,519
832
870
854
2,302
1,391
1,270
409
318
1,032
2,387
1,846
1,144
2,361
960
1,614
1,654
2,021
2,435
1,130
2,934 !
943
1,375
1,120
394
690
731
1,260
2,147
2,590
1,887
2,005
1,270
j
3,476
2,153
1,029
436
2,130
1,149
1,822
948
2,535
3,573
1,830
2,644
1,601
2,447
4,214
2,575
<d s a x
12
12.2
12.3
12.3
12.5
12.5
12.6
12.7
12.8
13
13
13.5
13.5
13.8
13.8
14.2
14.3
14.4
14.4
14.5
14.6
14.8
14.9
14.9
15.1
15.1
15.3
15.3
15.3
15.4
15
15
16
16
16
16
16
18
18
18
18
19
19
19
19
20.5
21.7
22.4
Note.—Statistics for the new counties of Avery and Hoke are not yet available,
fair, however, to rank them with the counties from which they were carved.
It would seem
PROGRAM
COUNTY MOONLIGHT SCHOOL DAY.
(A joint meeting of County Committee on Community Service and
County Teachers' Association with members of Farmers'
Union, Junior Order, Women's Clubs, etc.)
(No topic should consume more than ten minutes.)
1. Song: "America."
2. Scripture Reading and Prayer.
3. Reading Governor s Proclamation for "Moonlight School Month.
4. Reading State Superintendent's "Letter to Superintendents an
Teachers."
5. Where Our County Stands in the Adult Illiteracy Column.
6. Why We Should Observe "Moonlight School Month:'
7. How to Organize a Moonlight School:
a. The Survey of Illiterates.
h. How to Get Them to Enroll and Attend.
c. Use of Lesson Material.
8. Roll-call of Districts to Find Volunteer Helpers/1
'
9. Appointment of Committees.
10. Song: "Carolina."
The object here is to find and enroll those who will volunteer to take an active part
in establishing a moonlight school in their respective districts. If there should be no
volunteers from any district, then some member of the County Committee on Community
Service should be asked to assume the responsibility of seeing that leaders are found in
that district who will do the work.
SECTION II.
PROGRAM FOR FRIDAY—SCHOOL AND NEIGHBORHOOD
IMPROVEMENT DAY.
("North Carolina Day")
The meeting for Friday should he an all-day meeting at every schoolhouse,
for everybody—men and women, hoys and girls, young and old, married and
single—with public picnic dinner. It will be observed as "North Carolina Day"
in every school in the State by order of the State Department of Education.
In every case the schoolhouse should be decorated with autumn leaves and
flowers of all kinds, and with exhibits of farm products—corn, cotton, grains,
grasses, pumpkins, etc. Let everything radiate cheerfulness and the holiday
spirit.
MORNING SESSION.
1. Preliminary and Permanent Organization.
The meeting should be called to order by the chairman of the local school
committee. After devotional exercises, including singing, should follow a brief
statement of the purpose of the meeting, the chairman welcoming the people
of the community to their schoolhouse.
2. Discussion of Plans for Improvement of the Community School.
(a) School Term.
Length of it? Is it long enough? How can it be lengthened? The average
length of school term in the United States is 156 days ; in the South Atlantic-
States, 131 days ; in North Carolina, white, 124.2 days. In North Carolina
(1914) city districts the term was, white, 166 days; in our country districts,
white, 115.5 days ; in rural special-tax districts, white, 137 days. How does
your local school term compare with these averages?
(b) Teachers.
You know the number of teachers in your school. How many classes or
grades are there, and how many daily recitations? Can one teacher hope to
teach with thoroughness and efficiency all the subjects and classes required
and necessary for the seven elementary grades in your district? Has your
school enough teachers to give the time needed for thorough work to the num-ber
of children and the number of recitations in the number of subjects taught
and required? The average salary of rural teachers in North Carolina is
$235.27; average salary for the State is $271.36; average in cities, $454.42.
What is salary of other workers in your community? How does your teacher's
salary compare wTith these averages?
(c) Work of the Schools.
Consider whether any part of the work and any of the studies in your school
relate to country things, environment, and occupation ; give a profitable and
enjoyable knowledge thereof, awaken an interest therein, a love therefor, and
afford any sort of practical preparation for efficiency in the work of the farm
and the country home. Does your community school minister to the needs,
cultural, social, moral, vocational, of the community in which it is located and
by which it is maintained? Are your house, equipment, teaching force, and
funds adequate for such a school and for such work?
18 Community Service.
(d) Schoolhouses and Grounds.
Is your schoolhouse painted? Is it properly lighted, ventilated, and heated?
Is it clean, and kept so? Is it home-like and attractive within, with curtains,
shades, well selected pictures, etc.? Is it supplied with up-to-date blackboards,
comfortable desks, maps, library, etc.? Is there any auditorium for social
gatherings, entertainments, public lectures, and community meetings of various
sorts? Is the house large enough? How many acres in school grounds? Have
ample playgrounds for girls and boys been provided, and properly prepared
and equipped with at least some simple, home-made apparatus? Have school
grounds been properly drained, cleared of stumps and rubbish, laid off in
walks, flower plats, etc., beautified with flowers, vines, trees, and shrubs? Have
sanitary privies been provided, properly located and screened as modesty de-mands?
Is the water supply pure and properly protected? Do pupils have
individual drinking cups?
3. Suggested Means for Supplying Your School's Needs in Length of
Term, Teaching Force, Work, House. Grounds, etc.
The following remedies for any defects indicated by the foregoing questions
should be considered
:
(a) Enlarge School District.
By consolidation within reasonable walking distance, and by transportation
of pupils beyond walking distance, where the funds that can be made available
and other conditions, after careful investigation, make this practicable. En-larged
territory will furnish more property for taxation, more school popula-tion,
and more community population for cooperation for improvement of
schools and community.
(b) Local Tax.
Vote local tax, if necessary, under section 4115 of school law, or enlarge or
consolidate existing local-tax districts under that section, and thereby increase
annual available funds for all purposes of school improvement. Sixteen hun-dred
districts in North Carolina lengthen their school terms and improve their
schools in other ways by voting a special local tax and raise in the aggregate
$1,350,000 annually—about one-fourth of the total annual school fund of the
entire State.
(c) Larger Type of School.
If possible, provide enough territory and enough money for at least a three-teacher
school, which seems from experience the minimum type of the efficient
rural school. (See outline for the organization and work of such school in
Section III, under the subject, "A More Efficient Type of Rural Elementary
School," page 34.)
4. Other Agencies That Will Help to Supply These Needs.
(a) Industrial Activities.
1. Vetoing and Cooking Classes for Girls. In schools with three or more
teachers at least one teacher can be secured with necessary training to give
part of her time to this work.
2. Tomato Clubs and Poultry Clubs for Girls. Corn Clubs and Pig Clubs for
Boys. The cooperation of the county farm and home demonstration agents and
the agents—men and women—directing this work for1 State and National De-
North Carolina Day. 19
partments of Agriculture can be easily secured by teachers. Write Secretary
T. E. Browne, West Raleigh, N. C. (Director Corn Club Work) ; Mrs. Jane S. Mc-
Kinimon, Raleigh, N. C. (Director Canning Club Work) ; Mr. J. D. McVean, West
Raleigh, N. C. (Director Pig Club Work) ; Mr. A. G. Oliver. West Raleigh, N. C.
(Director Poultry Club Work) ; and have these clubs organized in your school
and community.
3. School Demonstration Farm and School Garden. These can be operated
under the direction of the teacher with the aid of county farm-life schools, and
demonstration agents, county, State, and National.
4. Bulletins. Bulletins from State and National Departments of Agriculture
for aid and direction in all this work can be obtained upon application and
should be on file in your school.
(For such bulletins free write to State Department of Agriculture, Raleigh,
N. C, and U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.)
(b) Woman's School Betterment Association.
Has your school an active Betterment Association? Have the women of
your local school district interested themselves in helping the teacher and the
committee to improve the school by raising money to lengthen the term ; build
a better schoolhouse, or enlarge, repair, and paint the one you have; to clean
off the school grounds and plant flowers and shrubbery thereon ; to increase
attendance ; buy a new school library or add to the old one ; to have a school
garden ; to buy a piano for the school ; to put in new maps, globes, and pictures;
to build sanitary outhouses and properly screen them ; to have community
meetings in the schoolhouse, lectures, entertainments, etc.?
If you do not have a Woman's School Betterment Association, do you not
think it wise to organize one today—NOW? Elect a president, vice president,
secretary and treasurer, and enroll every woman in the district. Then write
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Raleigh, N. C, for pamphlets
explaining the organization and work of the association.
Before you leave the school building today, consult the teacher and commit-tee,
decide upon some things you will do this fall, and set about it without
delay.
AFTERNOON DISCUSSION—OTHER NEEDS OF OUR COMMUNITY.
1. What Can Our Community Do to Teach Adults to Read and Write?
On pages 13-15 will be found tables showing exactly where your county
stands in the matter of adult illiteracy. For a fuller statement apply to your
county superintendent for the free bulletin, Adult Illiteracy in North Carolina
and Plans for Its Elimination.
Last year there were in North Carolina eighty-two moonlight schools, with
an enrollment of over 1,600 grown people of the average age of 45.
Read carefully the Governor's Proclamation and the plans and suggestions
for "Moonlight School Month" found in this bulletin ; read also the article on
"Moonlight Schools in Kentucky," on page 31. All teachers should apply to
their respective county superintendents for copies of Twelve Lessons in Read-ing,
Writing, and Arithmetic for Adult Beginners.
What is the number of adult illiterates in this district as shown by the dis-trict
census and the teacher's register? Discuss plans for organizing and con-ducting
a moonlight school in your schoolhouse during "Moonlight School
20 Community Service.
Month," to teach those fellow-citizens of yours to read and write, and to in-struct
other grown people in the community who can barely read and write.
Five thousand teachers of North Carolina have volunteered to devote at
least one month during this school term to teaching grown people to read and
write. If your teacher has not volunteered, and for any good reason cannot
do so, take steps at this meeting to secure somebody to do it. Some of the
educated people of your community will gladly volunteer to assist in the work.
A bulletin for teachers of moonlight schools, containing twelve lessons in
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, with many valuable suggestions, has been
prepared by the State Department of Education, and will be furnished free to
teachers of moonlight schools, or others assisting in teaching such schools,
upon application to the county superintendent.
Complete the plans and arrangements for a moonlight school in your school-house
before this meeting adjourns. Let this too long neglected service to
these too long neglected fellow-citizens who cannot read and write—many be-cause
they never had a chance to learn—be the first community service under-taken
by your community this year. Plan for it today; and let each one aid
in carrying out the plans successfully.
Do not stop until every person over 12 years old in your community who can-not
read and write is brought into the moonlight school and taught.
To prevent illiteracy in the future, cooperate actively with the teachers and
attendance officer in the enforcement of the compulsory attendance law to get
all children under 12 years old into the public school.
2. How Can We Better Encourage the Reading Habit Among Our People?
Consider whether your school library is what it ought to be, and whether
you have added a supplementary library. Read in Section III what was done
in the school library at Bunn, N. C. It has frequently been urged that every
one-horse farmer should spend $5 a year for newspapers and $5 for books; a
two-horse farmer $10 for newspapers and $10 for books, and a three-horse
farmer $15 for each. Are your people doing this? Are the older people read-ing
your library books? Wny not have the children exchange books and maga-zines
at school each Friday? A traveling library from the State Library Com-mission,
Raleigh, will be a great help. Also write Fourth Assistant Postmaster
General, Washington, D. C, for information as to how to get a R. F. D. route,
if you haven't one, for daily mail will do much to promote reading among all
classes.
3. Are Our Farmers Cooperating as They Should?
Consider here (a) the use of improved machinery; (&) marketing of staple
crops, vegetables, poultry, dairy products, etc.; (c) rural telephones and coop-erative
insurance; (d) cooperative creameries and cream routes. Read the
following story how the farmers around Chadbourn cooperated
:
"The members of Broadway Farmers' Union, No. 10S9, have been doing
things this year. We have bought for cash $1,850 worth of fertilizers, a thresh-ing
outfit at a cost of $750, a lime and fertilizer distributer, and have bought
together what grain we had to buy. Two of our members own a manure
spreader and two other members own a wheat drill. They all four use the two
machines. Therefore each man gets the use of these two machines at one-fourth
the cost of each man owning a separate machine. We also have several
Nokth Caeolina Day. 21
binders in our local, each owned by two or more individuals, and several
mowers and rakes owned in the same way. Five own a stalk-cutter, and five
own a steel roller."
Why shouldn't farmers in your community do likewise? Why shouldn't they
join together in marketing their cotton, cotton seed, or tobacco in the fall, and
in marketing vegetables, fruit, poultry, eggs, etc., at all seasons of the year?
Write to the Division of Markets, West Raleigh, N. C, for information about
how to form Cooperative Marketing Associations and Cooperative Credit
Unions under the law passed by the recent Legislature. Start a movement for
a farmers' cooperative telephone company. Then read the report of a farmers'
mutual fire insurance company on page 27, and see whether your people are
justified in risking ruin by fire when protection may be had at such low cost.
4. How Can We Make Our Community Healthier?
Are sanitary conditions in the community what they should be? Are wells
in places where they can be affected by drainage from stables, pig pens, etc.?
Do the people allow stagnant water near their houses as breeding places for
mosquitoes, leading to chills and fever? Have the children been examined for
hookworm disease? Are the homes screened? Has typhoid fever visited the
community this year? Swiss mothers nurse only 46 cases of typhoid fever in
every 100,000 of population ; German mothers, 63 ; Scotch, 96 ; mothers in our
Southern States have to nurse 727 cases of typhoid fever in every 100,000 of
population. Have you asked the State Board of Health to send you the monthly
Health Bulletin? Ask Dr. W. S. Rankin, Secretary, Raleigh, N. C, to put your
name on the regular mailing list.
See, also, "Community Health Suggestions" on page 34.
5. How Can We Develop a Richer Social Life and Recreation Facilities,
a Greater "Get-together" Spirit Among Our People?
People should get together more. See on page 32 games and songs for in-formal
meetings suggested by Dr. Wyche. Every town and every school should
have its playgrounds, and boys should have neighborhood baseball clubs, etc.
Singing schools should be encouraged; plays and pageants also. In every
school there should be frequent spelling, declamation, and debating contests by
boys and girls, and a neighborhood debating society for all. Each school should
also utilize the extension lectures from the University, A. and M. College, and
the various other colleges of the State; also from the State Departments of
Education, Health, Agriculture, etc. Many of these are illustrated lectures.
Henry S. Curtis in "Play and Recreation in the Open Country" suggests the
following monthly program:
First Friday of each month : singing school.
Second Friday: spelling match.
Third Friday: debate.
Fourth Friday: school exhibition and fair.
Every Wednesday night: a public lecture.
Thursday nights: classes in domestic economy and agriculture, followed by
lunch and games.
Saturday nights: moving pictures.
22 Community Service.
Your school may not be able to engage in all these activities, but certainly it
can make a beginning with one or two of the more important.
6. Appointment of Committees to Act and Report Later.
After discussing all these matters, let the people decide upon a few—not too
many—about which they wish to inaugurate improvements right away. Of
course, the moonlight school comes first. Other plans may be with regard to
consolidating districts so as to get a stronger community unit, develop a genu-ine
social center, and give better support to all social agencies. It may be with
regard to some definite plan for getting better roads or streets. It may be to
get a better school or town library. It may be to organize a cooperative tele-phone
association. And so on. In every case name a definite committee of
three or five persons who will take charge of that particular task with a de-termination
to make it a success. It is suggested that at least three definite
committees be appointed
:
(a) Committee on Moonlight School.
(b) Committee on School Improvement.
(c) Committee on Community Improvement.
Make arrangements, if possible, for all the men and women to come together
tomorrow (Saturday) and work for the improvement of schoolhouse and
grounds, church buildings and grounds, roads, streets, etc. ; and adjourn to
some later date to hear reports of committees appointed.
7. Games, Sports, Songs, Plays, and Social Features for Night Session.
A night session may be arranged with games, sports, songs, plays, and social
features, for a further discussion of the subjects indicated in this program, or
for a lecture or address by some invited speaker.
(Close with "Home, Sweet Home," sung by all present.)
CONCRETE ILLUSTRATIONS.
(Read below how various communities are actually answering satisfactorily
many of the questions presented in this program concerning the improvement
of your school, reprinted from 1914 Community Service Bulletin.)
(a) Autryville.
Have you heard of the Autryville Elementary School in Sampson County?
Only three years ago Autryville had a dingy, dilapidated one-room shack which
served as schoolhouse, village auditorium, and community church.
One or two leaders, with aid from the State Department of Education, won
a local-tax fight. A comfortable two-room building replaced the old ; two live
teachers came into the community ; boarding pupils came in. An upright piano
was bought and a music class was organized. Next followed a cooking class of
twenty girls under the principal, and a class of boys in industrial work was
directed by the assistant teacher. The new building is on a pretty hill ; a new
sand-clay road runs by the door; a tennis court has been laid out; and the
water for the school is drawn by means of a new up-to-date pump.
The people are proud of their school and are enthusiastic in its support.
Within the past few months adjoining districts have come into the Autryville
District, another room has been added to the school building, and another effi-cient
teacher has been employed. From a weak one-teacher school in an nn-
North Carolina Day. 23
painted, unattractive, unequipped, box-car schoolhouse, with a public school
term of only four months, this Autryville School during the past few years has
developed iuto an efficient rural elementary school employing three competent
and well trained teachers—teaching in an attractive, modern, and well equipped
building located on an attractive school site, with a school term of from seven
to eight months, with the work of the school more adequately ministering to
the cultural as well as the everyday needs of the community's children.
(b) Brogden School.
The Brogden School, in Johnston County, is another illustration of a com-munity's
progress in the building up of an efficient three-teacher type of rural
elementary school. After a long and hard fight the people carried a local tax,
erected on an attractive site a comfortable and well equipped three-room build-ing,
and employed three competent teachers to do the work. Through its one
or two years of high school instruction, through the teaching of practical agri-culture
to the boys and domestic science to the girls, this school is now more
satisfactorily ministering to the cultural as well as the everyday needs of the
children of the community. The factions that arose over the voting of local tax
have died down ; the people are now proud of their school and enthusiastic in
its support. This school probably has the largest Boys' Corn Club in the
county.
(c) The Thurman School.
The Thurman School, in Craven County, represents probably the largest type
of school consolidation with the public transportation of pupils in the State.
Two years ago the white children in this township were attending school in
three dingy, uncomfortable, unequipped, one-room school buildings erected upon
small, unattractive, and shadeless spots. The people became convinced that
under these conditions the educational needs of these children were not being
met nor could be met. They launched an aggressive campaign for the voting
of local tax and the consolidation of all the schools of the township into one
central school. The election was carried by a good majority, an attractive
three-room school building was erected upon a school site of seventeen acres,
three school wagons were bought, and about seventy children living too far to
walk now ride to one central school. The school began with two teachers.
This year they have a competent male principal and a competent assistant.
The principal has bought a farm near the school and intends becoming a per-manent
resident, giving to the community, the year round, the benefit of his
leadership in all matters pertaining to its fullest development industrially,
socially, and morally. The question of adding another teacher is now being
discussed, and this may be done before the close of the session. With this male
principal who loves country life and understands practical agriculture, with
this school site of seventeen acres, the boys in Thurman School are going to
have a rare opportunity for regular, systematic, and valuable instruction in
country-life subjects. It is probable that the girls also in this school are going
to be given systematic training in cooking, sewing, in home-making and home-keeping.
By enlarging their territory they now have the taxable property and
the people to develop a type of rural elementary school that is very efficient in
meeting the needs of the children of the entire township. It is not surprising
that the people are enthusiastic over their school and that it is becoming an
object-lesson for the rural communities throughout the entire county.
SECTION III.
GOOD EXAMPLES FOR YOUR COMMUNITY.
The following articles have been compiled with a view to furnishing sugges-tions
and questions relating to the programs in the preceding pages. They are
arranged alphabetically according to topics. Credit for the source from which
they have been drawn is not always given, as they have been taken from many
different publications and persons.
The significance of these articles will become immediately apparent upon be-ing
read. They show what the leading communities in North Carolina and the
Nation are doing to upbuild our civilization. Each one, when read, should be
followed by the searching question, "Will the adoption of the suggestion herein
presented be of value to my community?"'
Betterment Associations.
HAVE YOU A SCHOOL BETTERMENT ASSOCIATION?
What some such associations are doing in North Carolina
:
1. Parents meet once a month with teachers to discuss school needs and to
plan improvements.
2. Parents or friends come to school at a stated time (last hour Friday)
and give informal talks on topics of the day.
3. Parents suggest and insist upon medical and dental inspection. Asso-ciations
sometimes pay for special treatment for children whose parents can-not
afford it.
4. Material Improvements: (a) The Woman's Club of Wilmington estab-lished
a Domestic Science Department in the High School, (b) The Civic Club
of Davidson put in drinking fountains and provided a playground director for
recess hours, (c) The Community Club of Chapel Hill supports a musical de-partment
in the village school, (d) Many civic clubs have founded school
libraries and provided good pictures for schools, (e) The Woman's Club of
Gastonia spent hundreds of dollars terracing and improving school grounds.
The Superintendent of Schools of Gastonia granted half holiday in order that
the teachers might attend a special meeting of the Woman's Club for discus-sion
of community problems. (/) Women's Clubs furnish speakers and pro-grams
for Arbor Day, civic days, flag days, etc. (g) Parents provide seeds,
plants, hedges, and trees for school-yard planting.
—
Mrs. T. W. Lingle, Presi-dent
of the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs.
Head what two active Betterment Associations have done:
APEX.
During the past school year the Apex School Betterment Association raised,
in addition to gifts made to the school, the sum of $246.73. This money came
from the following sources
:
North Carolina Day. 25
Money on hand May 1, 1914 $ 30.10
Cleared from oyster suppers 16.52
Prizes in cash, including prize for best exhibit at State Fair 27.50
Dues 6.00
Rent of school grounds 10.00
Bazaar 31.55
Plays and entertainments 115.06
Sale of pictures to secure money for library 10.00
Total $246.73
The method of raising this money is indicated by the foregoing statement.
Attention should be called to the fact, however, that a definite policy was fol-lowed
throughout the year in the efforts of the association. Each month a
member of the association was appointed to direct the activities of the associ-ation
for that month in the raising of the money. This member would have
charge of the planning and would call upon the other members' to help in the
way that was most needed. This method gave a unity to the work and was
very effective.
The money raised was spent for the following purposes
:
Library $ 34.15
Cleaning building (janitor hire) 87.50
Doormats 6.75
Burlap 3.15
County Commencement banner and expenses of exhibits 17.73-
Library table 13.00
Improving school grounds 7.50
Expenses of Commencement and speakers 34.40
Spent for other purposes 12.83
Total $217.01
Balance on hand now (August 28, 1915) 29.72
In addition to the amounts mentioned above, donations were made to the
school to the value of $54. These gifts took the form of books, pictures, prizes,
and work on the school grounds. Many of these gifts were secured on Dona-tion
Day. On Thanksgiving the members of the association were "at home"
in the school building to the people of the community, and every one was asked
to come to the school building and bring some gift that would be useful for
the school. Some time before this there had been printed in the local paper a
list of the things that were especially needed. This helped in securing the
donations.
During the last year an especial effort was made to improve the library.
The school now has a new International Encyclopedia, which is almost entirely
paid for ; also secured through the North Carolina Library Commission a loan
library for four months. A loan library can be had free by any association
that will pay transportation from Raleigh and return. " This library was a
splendid collection of thirty-seven books. These books were read by over 200
people in the community. The transportation from Raleigh and return was
26 Community Service.
50 cents. Fines to the amount of 83 cents were collected. Thus the school had
the use of 37 books for a period of four months and actually made a profit on
them of 33 cents.
During the year nine entertainments were given at the school. The floors
were oiled twice, gravel was placed around the well, and several loads of rub-bish
removed from the grounds.
The Apex Association has 31 members. They aided in visiting homes and
cooperated with teachers in improving school attendance.
FAIRVIEW.
The Fairview (Wake County) Betterment Association and teachers gave
four entertainments during the last school term. At one of these Professor
Cobb of Chapel Hill was the speaker, and at another, Professor Judd. Their
talks were a great help in keeping up enthusiasm and encouragement during
the remainder of the school term.
The school term was lengthened thirteen days, at a cost of $107.25. The
sum of $08.81 was cleared from the school farm, and one of the $10 prizes
given by Mr. E. B. Crow for the best yield for the amount of land cultivated
was awarded this school.
Part of the firewood was furnished for the school through the Betterment
Association, and all of the incidental expenses of the school were paid from
the Betterment fund.
The building was thoroughly cleaned, the floors oiled, and the yard cleaned
of all rubbish and all the rocks removed.
Also bought a large bell for the school.
Total amount cleared $165.13
Amount expended 136.65
Amount on hand $ 28.48
Canning Clubs.
WHAT SOME CANNING CLUB GIRLS ARE DOING.
Where Canning Club work has been established for two or more years and the
output of canned goods is between 10,000 and 60,000 cans per county the girls
are advised to sell to merchants ; and to that end cooperative marketing asso-ciations
have been formed amongst the girls of a county for the disposal of
their products. The executive board of the local club, composed of the most
energetic business girls, endeavors to dispose of everything in its own commu-nity;
but if this cannot be accomplished, it calls on the county board, which
can usually sell in one of the many county markets. Each county is expected
to dispose of its own products ; but if it has overproduced, the State Market-ing
Association, composed of the chairmen of each county association, will
undertake to dispose of this surplus.
Nokth Carolina Day. 27
The Canning Club membership this year numbers 2,914. with 1,500 affiliated
women. Returns indicate that the girls will rill 000,000 containers with canned
products of all kinds and the women from 50,000 to 100,000 cans.
Reports are coming in of the girls who have helped to keep themselves at
school this year with the profits made from the summer's work in canning and
preserving. Miss Jessie Maske of Anson County is at Meredith because of her
success in canning. Miss Leah Kendall has been given a scholarship at Little-ton
for helping with the canning there this fall. Misses Ruth and Virginia
Jones and Annie Bell Smith are at Albemarle Industrial School by the help of
their canned products. In Wake County Miss Esther Shearon and Miss Rennie
Caudle, through the same means, are maintaining themselves at Peace. Dr.
Ramsey of Peace Institute has been so much interested in these Canning Club
girls that he has offered a scholarship giving not only the regular course, but
any extra which the winner may choose. Miss May Shearon and Miss Grace
Batts were equally fortunate in arranging to go to the State Normal College at
Greensboro. In Franklin County Misses Monnie and Mary Stallings filled
1,000 tin cans each and are using the profits for tuition at college. Miss Annie
Garris of Northampton has taken her products to Murfreesboro in exchange
for her tuition. From many other counties similar accounts of girls at school are
sent, and when all returns are in they will doubtless show a large number of
North Carolina girls receiving an education through their own efforts at can-ning
and preserving and their business ability in marketing what they have
produced.
Mrs. Jane S. McKimmon, State Agent, Home Demonstration Work.
Insurance.
FARMERS' MUTUAL INSURANCE.
According to the last annual report of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Asso-ciation
of Catawba and Burke counties, organized in 1901. the amount of in-surance
in force was $1,786,890. Of this amount $1,217,870 was carried by
Catawba farmers and $569,020 by Burke farmers. New insurance to the
amount of $261,930 was written last year. The assessments have been only 15
cents on the $100 annually since the year 1905. A farmer can carry insurance
in this Mutual Association for $1.50 per thousand. The assessments for the
last year amounted to $2,496.07. The association carries in the treasury about
$1,200, so that losses can be met promptly. There was paid out for the year
ending July 1 for losses, $1,934.35. The expenses for doing business for the
year included taxes, salaries, postage, etc., and amounted to about $S00. There
are at present 2,268 members of this association, a gain of 268 within the last
twelve months. All losses have been adjusted satisfactorily and the associa-tion
is in a healthy condition and growing. The last assessment just sent out
for this year amounts to only 15 cents on the hundred dollars.
This is perhaps the cheapest insurance a farmer can get, and it provides
the features of safeness with that of low cost.
Are the farmers in your county enjoying fire protection at this low rate?
Why not?
—
From 1914 Community Service Bulletin.
28 Community Service.
Corn Clubs.
WHAT SOME CORN CLUB BOYS HAVE DONE.
In Union County there are two club members who have attracted especial
attention by their work. In one case the county agent was on his rounds when
a farmer told him he should visit a certain boy ; that he was the best farmer
in the community. On driving up to the farm the agent found a bright lad of
18 years who began to fire questions at him. The questions showed unusual
knowledge of agriculture, and the crops on the farm indicated the presence of
a real farmer. When asked how he learned so much about agriculture, the boy
stated that he joined the Corn Club several years previously, got interested in
the letters and bulletins, and since had read all the literature he could get his
hands on. Although in his teens, this boy is a recognized authority, among his
own neighbors, on agricultural subjects.
Another little adopted boy in Union County became a member of the Corn
Club, read the letters and bulletins sent him, and, although he made no prize-winning
yields, he learned how to farm. Some time ago his foster father died,
leaving just the widow and the boy. This boy was sufficiently informed to take
hold of that farm, and is carrying it right on.
There is a family near Burlington, Alamance County, in which there were
two loyal Corn Club boys. The oldest boy made such a good record on his
acre that the management of a neighboring farm was entrusted to him. He
soon afterward went to college, and today he is one of the leading men at the
State University ; active in all college life, a leader in his class work, and one
of the finest athletes the institution has. His younger brother joined the club
when only 13 years old, and stuck by it till his age debarred him, making
some excellent yields. When he joined the club, according to his- own state-ment,
he had made up his mind to take a mechanical course. Through the
Corn Club he became interested in the study of soils and crops and today he
is at A. and M. College taking a course in agriculture.
In Friendship Community, Alamance County, there was quite an active Corn
Club. The rural school supervisor of the county found that these people were
becoming interested in their community's development. A community fair was
proposed and the idea spread like wildfire. The club boys and girls lined up
behind the movement and the first Community Fair was made a success. The
next year several other communities held similar fairs, and in each case we
find the community fairs going to the school districts where there were live
Corn and Canning Clubs, and the boys and girls taking the lead. The agricul-tural
club of the school district should be the nucleus around which other com-munity
clubs and organizations are formed. Get the boys and girls of any
community organized for work and the community will go forward.
In 1914 the 1,000 boys who reported made an average of 58.2 bushels of
corn, or a total of 58,200 bushels. That is 38,000 bushels more than they would
have made had they grown corn at the average of the State—20.7 bushels.
Putting corn at 90 cents a bushel, they added $34,200 to the wealth of the
State.
In Buncombe County 45 boys made 3,421.69 bushels, an average yield per
acre of 70.03 bushels. Average cost, 373/10 cents per bushel.
North Carolina Day. 29
Buncombe has 33,302 acres in corn and averages 18% bushels per acre. The
boys made 2,576.09 bushels more than they would have made had they grown
corn at rate of the average farmer of county.
Caldwell County had 44 boys who made 2,455.41 bushels. Average yield per
acre, 55.8. Average cost per bushel, 39% cents.
In 1909 there were 23,S29 acres planted to corn in Caldwell, which made
355,13S or an average of 15 bushels per acre. Had all the farmers done as
well as the boys they would have made 1,320,70S bushels.
—
T. E. Browne, State
Agent, Boys' Corn Clubs.
Farmers' Union Libraries.
BOOKS FOR THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY.
Recognizing the general scarcity in country homes and rural communities of
reading matter relating to country life—its business, its recreations, its home-making,
its community activities through cooperative effort—the State Farmers'
Union has adopted a plan to help the Local Unions procure a small library of
the best books in this line, with a few others of a more general nature. Any
Local Union may get this library by furnishing only a part of the cost. It may
be made the beginning of a community library or used as a supplement to one
already established ; or it may be added to the school library, under certain
conditions. For full particulars, address E. C. Faires, Secretary State Farmers'
Union, Aberdeen, N. C.
30 Community Service.
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North Carolina Day. 31
Moonlight Schools.
"MOONLIGHT" SCHOOLS IN KENTUCKY.
The object of the "moonlight" schools of Kentucky is the reduction of adult
illiteracy. The story of the attempt begun in September, 1911, by Mrs. Cora
Wilson Stewart, Superintendent of Schools in Rowan County, Ky., and her
associates, follows.
Having studied carefully the conditions of the county, Mrs. Stewart decided
to open night schools for adults on moonlight nights in the public sehoolhouses
of the county. She outlined her plan to the teachers and called for volunteers.
All the teachers of the county responded. On Labor Day, September 4, 1911,
these teachers visited the homes of the people throughout the county, explained
the plan, and announced that moonlight schools would be opened the next even-ing.
It was expected that the response would be slow, but more than 1,200
men and women from IS to 86 years old were enrolled the first evening. They
came trooping over the hills and out of the hollows, some to add to the meager
education received in the inadequate schools of their childhood, some to receive
their first lessons in reading and writing. Among these were not only illiterate
farmers and their illiterate wives, sons, and daughters, but also illiterate
merchants or "storekeepers," illiterate ministers, and illiterate lumbermen.
Mothers, bent with age, came that they might learn to read letters from absent
sons and daughters, and that they might learn for the first time to write to
them. Almost one-third of the population of the county was enrolled.
In September, 1912, a "moonlight school" teachers' institute was held in
Morehead, Ky., and the superintendent and teachers who had conducted the
first moonlight schools instructed others who wished to do work of this kind in
Rowan and adjoining counties, and in the fall of 1912 the movement spread to
eight or ten other counties, while the enrollment of adults in Rowan County
reached nearly 1,600.
The success of the men and women proves that it is not so difficult for illiter-ate
grown-ups to learn to read and write as is generally supposed. They learn
in a very short time, if given the opportunity. Reading, writing, and arithme-tic
are simple subjects when mature minds are concentrated upon them. One
man, aged 30, after four lessons in the evening school, wrote the county super-intendent
a legible letter. Another man, aged 50, wrote a legible letter after
seven nights attendance. A woman, aged 70, wrote a legible letter after eight
nights of study. These cases are, of course, exceptional ; but experience has
shown that a few weeks attendance at the night schools has been sufficient to
enable the adult pupils to pass over the dark line of illiteracy and to get into
the class of literates. Several succeeded in securing a Bible, which had been
offered as a prize by the superintendent to those who would learn to write a
letter during the first two weeks of the moonlight school term.
One of the significant facts brought out in this experiment is that adults of
limited education have taken advantage of the opportunity to return to school
and to increase their knowledge. Of the 1,600 adult pupils attending night
school during the second term, 300 were unable to read and write at all, 300
were from those who had learned in September, 1911, and 1,000 were men and
women of meager education.
32 Community Service.
The change in the attitude of the community toward the school, where the
night school has been undertaken, is in itself significant A school trustee thus
describes the change in his community
:
"I have lived in this district for 55 years, and I never saw any such interest
as we have here now. The school used to just drag along, and nobody seemed
interested. "We never had a gathering at the school, and nobody thought of
visiting the school. We had not had night school but three weeks until we got
together right. We papered the house, put in new windows, purchased a new
stovepipe, made new steps, and bought the winter's fuel.
"Now we have a live Sunday-school, a singing school, prayer-meeting once
each week, and preaching twice a month. People of all denominations in the
district meet and worship together in perfect unity and harmony, aged people
come regularly, and even people ~ from the adjoining county are beginning to
come."
Plap and Games.
PLAY AND RECREATION.
The following suggestions on play and recreation for "NOrth Carolina Day"
in every public school have been made by Richard T. Wyche, a former North
Carolinian, now President of the Story Tellers' League of America
:
Since a part of the programs for Community Service Week is given to recrea-tion,
what means shall we use that we may get the best results?
I propose that we utilize the deep race instincts for games, songs and story-telling.
All races have their folk-games, folk-songs, and folk-stories, a con-serving
and refining influence that has come down to us from the childhood of
the world.
What games shall we play? I would say the old games, rhythmic games,
group games, singing games, handed down by our ancestors. These are games
that all can play together, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and neighbors
;
in homes, school, or playgrounds. Baseball, basket ball, etc., are good, but
only a few can play, while the balance look on.
Most people who come to a picnic or social gathering play some kind of
games, but they do not always play to the best advantage. While the widest
range for free play should be allowed, several practical leaders who know well a
dozen or more good games, should take hold of the crowd, put the little chil-dren
in several groups, the middle sized in others, and grown people in still
another group. They soon could have five hundred people playing to the best
advantage and the place resounding with sounds of mirth.
Below I give a few of the old singing games that belong to a large group that
cannot be surpassed in their possibilities for musical, rhythmical, and dramatic
expression, blended with pathos and humor. I have tried them out in many
places and they are popular with young and old.
1. Looby Loo. All stand in circle and sing, "I put my right hand in, I put
my right hand out, I give my right hand a shake, shake, shake, and turn my-self
about." Then left hand, two hands, right foot, left foot, etc., all singing
and moving together.
North Carolina Day. 33
2. Jolly Miller. One in the center, others in couples, march round singing,
"Jolly is the miller that lives by the mill; the wheel goes round with a right
good will," etc. When right steps forward and left back, one in center seizes
partner. The one left over gets in the center and the game continues as at
beginning.
3. Farmers in the Dell.
4. We are marching round the village, go in and out the window, go forth
and choose your lover, etc.
5. Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow.
6. Pig in the parlor. "My mother and father are Irish, and I am Irish, too.
They put the pig in the parlor, for he is Irish, too. Right hand to your partner,
left hand to your neighbor," etc. Tune of "We'll Not Go Home Till Morning."
Other group games, but not sung, are
:
1. Cat and Mouse. 2. Fox and Geese. 3. Drop the handkerchief. 4. Pris-oner's
Base. 5. Relay races. 6. Tug of war (boys). 7. Helping. Take an
even number, say ten, let one be "It," the catcher. That leaves nine, who join
hands in twos. "It" can catch the odd one, but the group pairs and repairs so
fast that the odd one is never in the same place. When an odd one is caught
he becomes "It." Space for running is required. The game appeals to grown
people and children over 12.
After people have played games and by deep breathing renewed their blood
with oxygen, increased the circulation, eliminated poison, laughed together,
become free, social, and democratic, they are ready to sing together. Their
voices are strong and resonant.
Let them sit down and sing such songs as "Suwanee River," "Juanita," "Old
Black Joe," "Dixie," "Old Kentucky Home," "Annie Laurie," glee club songs
and negro melodies such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."
Story telling would probably be the most spontaneous and social way of
spending the remainder of the time. It might begin with the telling of short
anecdotes by a number and followed by folk stories, such as Uncle Remus,
history and hero stories, Indian stories, fairy stories, stories of love and
romance. The story telling should be sincere, natural, creative, and no ambi-tious
or cranky person should be permitted to monopolize the whole time.
Parents, teachers, and frequently children can contribute to the delight of the
story hour.
The fundamental principle for games, songs and story telling is that ex-pression
is life, suppression is death. Every child, mam and woman must
have some way of expressing his life and contributing to the joy of the occa-sion.
We grow by giving. That being the case, every school, home, and
church should have its playground, song and story hour. Every school should
have a playground of from two to ten acres, according to its size. Teachers
should play and lead the children in group games. It would greatly build up
their health and unite teacher and pupil in good fellowship. No teacher
should be permitted to teach who cannot or will not play.
34 Community Service.
Public Health.
COMMUNITY HEALTH SUGGESTIONS.
1. See that the school is properly ventilated with window ventilators and
the room heated with a jacketed stove as described in the bulletin prepared
by the State Department of Public Instruction and furnished upon request to
any interested person. Also get rid of the common drinking cup and roller
towel, substituting for these conveyors of infection the suggestions of the
above mentioned publication.
2. See that the school well is properly constructed and that the school is pro-vided
with sanitary privies as described in the bulletin issued on School Build-ings
and Grounds, prepared by the State Department of Education.
3. Appoint a committee to arrange, with the advice and assistance of the
State Board of Health, for a community meeting early next spring to consider
measures for the relief or eradication of the fly nuisance.
4. Inquire into the teaching of subjects of sanitation and hygiene in the
school, and unless these subjects are emphasized, insist that the principal of
the school give them the important place in the classes that they deserve.
5. Appoint a committee to consider the problem of a community physician.
Write the State Board of Health for particulars.
6. As a means to all of the above, and as the first essential and remedy
necessary for the application of all other remedies, work to- secure a whole-time
county health officer in your county, which is the best step in the direc-tion
of efficient county health administration, and from which all communi-ties
of the county will profit and by which the above sanitary suggestions for
your own community may be more surely and easily carried out. See plan
discussed in Bulletin No. 2 of the State Board of Health. If you are inter-ested
in this matter, write for this bulletin at once and for any further infor-mation
that may be desired.
A MORE EFFICIENT TYPE OF RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
I. Purposes.
1. To give country children a broader and more intelligent acquaintance
with country life.
2. To give them a more genuine appreciation of and satisfaction with country
life.
3. To give them more adequate training and preparation for a more remun-erative,
more effective, and a more satisfying life in the country.
4. To develop a rural community life that is industrially more effective, and
that is socially, morally, and intellectually more efficient.
II. Method.
1. To increase the territory of the one-teacher school district from approxi-mately
nine square miles to twenty or twenty-five square miles.
North Carolina Day. 35
2. To provide a school site of not less than six or eight acres, thereby fur-nishing
ample space for playground and demonstration farm work.
3. A three-room school building with ample auditorium—building comforta-ble,
attractive, equipped with comfortable seats, modern blackboards, maps,
globes, and well selected library for pupils and teacher.
4. Three competent and well trained teachers with male principal.
5. The community furnishes permanent home for principal and with him his
two assistant teachers.
6. Principal gives two years of high school instruction, supervises and di-rects
the work of his two assistants through the observation of their work,
private conferences, well planned and regularly conducted teachers' meetings.
7. Principal organizes boys in the school above fifth grade into a Boys' Farm-life
Club. By means of text-books on agriculture, agricultural bulletins and
the school demonstration farm, the boys are given practical instruction in
better farming, better business, and better living upon the farm. For the
particular crop grown upon the school farm, a specially prepared course of
study is provided, furnishing a continuous series of lessons and activities
throughout the year.
8. After the school closes, the Farm-life Club meets at their school farm
once or twice each week at the call of the principal or county farm demon-strator,
to study the particular needs of the crop at that time and to do the
cultivation necessary.
9. The first assistant to the principal organizes the girls in the school above
the fifth grade into a Home-life Club, giving them practical instruction on
their school demonstration plat in making the home garden, preserving the
products for home use and for marketing. They are also given practical in-struction
in raising better poultry, in sewing, cooking, home sanitation, and
hygiene. For their work in growing tomatoes, a specially prepared course of
study is provided, furnishing a series of continuous lessons and activities dur-ing
the year.
10. The second assistant to the principal organizes the boys and girls in the
school above fifteen years of age and the young men and young women of the
community into a singing club. She directs and supervises their work and
aids them in preparing musical entertainments to be given at the school several
times during the school term. This teacher also organizes the young women
and the mothers of the community into a Betterment Association for making
more attractive the school building and school grounds. Through tactful sug-gestions
she will aid the women in their planning to make their individual
homes more beautiful and more desirable.
11. The county farm demonstrator meets with the principal and members
of the Farm-life Club two or three times each month, takes an active part in
their class-room discussions, in their experiments, and gives them the advan-tage
of his practical skill and knowledge in their actual work upon their school
farm. In a word, he is an effective assistant to the principal and the Farm-life
Club studies, and school farm work.
12. If the principal does not own his home in the community, and is absent
during the summer months, then the members of the Farm-life Club elect
36 Community Service.
the county farm demonstrator to become their leader during the summer, and
he calls them to meet once or twice each week to study the needs of their
crop and to do the cultivation necessary.
13. The home demonstration agent is to be the first assistant and be to the
members of the Girls' Club what the county farm demonstrator is to the princi-pal
and to the Boys' Farm-life Club. She will be present at the weekly meet-ings
of the Girls' Club two or three times each month and take an active inter-est
in their discussions of home-life problems. In a word, in this work she is a
valuable assistant in the school.
14. The auditorium is the common meeting place for the people of the entire
community. In this auditorium are held neighborhood spelling matches, decla-mations,
and debates. Here are given musical entertainments, illustrated lec-tures,
addresses on topics of most vital interest to the community. Here the
mothers of this larger community plan improvements in the school building
and school grounds, plan improvements in the beauty and efficiency of their
individual homes, and here the members of the Farmers' Union meet to discuss
better farming, better business, and better living upon the farm.
Rural Women's Clubs.
(1) DEVELOPING A MODEL RURAL COMMUNITY.
The housekeepers of Salemburg, Sampson County, are organized into a
strong Matrons' Club, which is doing very significant work in the way of pro-moting
home industries, household management, and general uplift work.
The entire membership is divided into several working committees, each of
which is visiting every home in its section of the community for the purpose
of soliciting the cooperation of every family in the health campaign, and these
committees are systematically caring for the sick and suffering in their re-spective
territories. Very recently the Woman's Club has organized the young
ladies of Salemburg into a branch club, the prime purpose of which is to
promote the cultural side of life, and to cooperate with the older Woman's
Club in its efforts to establish a community library. It is expected that the
young ladies will in turn lend their influence and aid to the young girls, who
have a very interesting industrial club. The women have caught the vision
and have gone about their part of the work in a way that must give back
results.
The young men have built a tennis court, organized a baseball team and
also a local band, which will soon be in shape to furnish creditable music for
the public gatherings in the community. The social life of Salemburg has
, been greatly stimulated by the general quickening of community life, and the
young people are constantly making opportunities to enjoy life through whole-some
and innocent means.
—
North Carolina Education.
(2) WOMEN'S MARKETING CLUBS.
Beginning with Canning Club work among the girls of our State, Home
Demonstration work has gradually increased and broadened until it includes
North Carolina Day. 37
the older women as well. Mothers, aunts, and even grandmothers have eome
to realize the benefits of getting together and doing things for the betterment
of home and community.
Some remarkable results have attended the employment of a trained woman
to supervise work among rural women and girls, this having been made possi-ble
by increased county appropriations. In one community the women who
were individually selling eggs, poultry, and butter at unprofitable prices and
to fitful markets were brought together by the county agent, instructed in
grading and packing eggs and in making sausage, and taught how to mold
butter and just what constituted a high-grade pack. In consequence, last
winter these women got into communication with Raleigh and Wilmington
housewives and were able to dispose of these products at a satisfactory profit.
The city housewives also felt satisfied, and are encouraging these country pro-ducers
to continue the mutually helpful cooperative marketing. Rural women
thus organized are fast learning the value of a standard, salable article, as
products sold through the organization must conform to standards laid down
as to quality, grade, and pack.
Women have also become interested in fancy preserves and jellies and in
making the commercial packs, just as the advanced Canning Club girls are
doing. In Cleveland County, where there was very little canning before,
75,000 empty tin cans have been shipped this year to women and girls who are
either club members or who have been induced to can through seeing the work
of the club girls.
A Sampson County agent, in a weekly report, has the following to say
:
"I succeeded, after much persuasion, in getting a tenant woman on
our place to join the club this year, and assisted her in getting cans
and a canner, and it has opened the eyes of the neighborhood and
aroused their enthusiasm as nothing else has. That woman has
canned between seven and eight hundred cans and jars for herself and
others. Her friends have carried fruit and vegetables to her for fif-teen
miles to be canned. I am now trying to get them interested in
organizing a woman's 'Help One Another' Club, and in that way help
them to become better housekeepers, better cooks, and better business
women."
School Farms.
CULTIVATING SCHOOL FARMS IN WAKE COUNTY.
One of the most interesting developments in North Carolina school work
has been that of the school farm idea as worked out by Superintendent Z. V.
Judd, of Wake. The story of that development has been made the subject
of a Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education, a copy of which
should be in the hands of every county superintendent in the State. It
can be secured free by writing to the Commissioner of Education, Washing-ton.
D. C.
The school farm is at or near the schoolhouse. It is from two to ten acres
in size and is worked by a community organization under the direction of a
38 Community Service.
farm superintendent. The proceeds go to the school. Such crops are planted
as are adaptable to the climate and soil and can easily be cultivated by women
and children as well as men. In Wake cotton has been planted more than all
other crops.
The purpose of the school farm is its most significant feature. It is three-fold
:
First, to give the school a new meaning as a factor in the socialization of
rural life ; second, to vitalize school life by the introduction of new practical
subjects, or by improving the method of teaching old subjects, or by both;
third, to supplement the school fund.
The results in Wake have been striking. In seven years the school farms
have grown in number from one to twenty-four ; in number of persons work-ing
in one year, from a handful at Holly Springs to 2,136; in money returns,
from $118.28 to $1,550.20. The total clear financial returns from these farms
during the seven years amounts to more than $7,000. The improvement of
social conditions in the school farm communities has been marked.
Closely allied with the school farm movement in Wake County is the Better-ment
Work. The Betterment Association has a membership of over eight
hundred. Last year the contributions of this association to the public schools
amounted to only a little less than $10,000.
—
From 1914 Community Service
Bulletin.
School Libraries.
HOW ONE RURAL SCHOOL LIBRARY HELPED THE
NEIGHBORHOOD.
The library of Bunn High School during the session of 1910-11 added nearly
a hundred books to an already well stocked case, and, what is more important,
more than tripled the circulation as compared with previous years.
At the previous commencement some funds had been raised by giving a
play, and this sum had been wisely reserved for library purposes. So we at
once ordered a large bookcase of our own design, costing $15. It had shelf
capacity for more than twice the number of books in hand (about 200). In
placing the books in the new case we catalogued them, using a very simple
card system by which we were enabled to tell at a glance what books were
in the library, the name of the author, and the title. We also arranged an-other
card system for circulation purposes. Every child in the school was
given a card, which was kept for him in the case, and each one was then made
to feel that the card gave him a special right to get a book just when he
wanted it. The demand picked up at once. Needless to say, the requests for
books were always promptly attended to by the person in charge—and that
person was always to be found, too.
Like most rural libraries, ours was woefully wanting in books that appeal
to children. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" was in its proper
place, but we needed Mother Goose, fairy tales, animal stories, etc. We
ordered these ; we already had Uncle Remus ; and, besides, we ordered fifty
copies of five-cent classics, published by the Owen Publishing Company of
North Carolina Day. 39
Dansville, N. Y. The arrival of these little books was joyfully greeted by
the children, and there was hardly a pupil in school who did not read as many
as six of them.
Money for buying new books was raised in many ways. The commence-ment
play has already been mentioned, and there were contributions from indi-viduals
both of money and of books. Then, too, advantage was taken of the
funds provided by State and county for supplementary libraries. The arrival
of any new books was always announced publicly, usually at the Sunday-school
service. The Sunday-school meets in the schoolhouse and affords an excellent
opportunity for distribution of books.
READING ROOM FOR YOUNG MEN.
We now had a circulating library, but the interest was confined chiefly to
the pupils ; and a rural library to be a success must extend its usefulness
to every individual in the community. The problem of interesting young men
not in school is always a most difficult one, and that which we think ought to
attract often drives away. With this problem in mind, we determined to
supplement the library in a way that would interest the young men. A read-ing
room naturally suggested itself, and we at once put in an order to the
amount of about $14 for a number of standard weekly and monthly maga-zines,
such as the Outlook, World's Work, Everybody's Magazine, Success,
American Boy, Youth's Companion, Progressive Farmer, and others of like
class. There were also included all of the free bulletins of the State and Na-tional
departments covering the subjects of agriculture, home economics, and
health. It was decided to have the reading room open at night, as young men
in the country work from "sun to sun." So announcements were made in the
Sunday-school—to which everybody goes—that a reading room for the benefit
of all the young men of Bunn community and surrounding country would be
open every Tuesday and Friday nights. All were invited to come, and in
their working clothes, too. This plan has worked well.
All the magazines and papers are filed in the bookcase, and, for the benefit
of the women and stay-at-homes, the children are allowed to take any of them
home, except the current numbers, and to keep them for a few days. Thus the
reading matter circulates and the usefulness of the library is felt and appre-ciated
throughout the community.
—
J. M. Broughton, Jr., in 1914 Community
Service Bulletin.
Traveling Libraries.
HOW TO GET ONE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY.
North Carolina maintains through its Library Commission at Raleigh a sys-tem
of free traveling libraries. General traveling libraries furnish people liv-ing
on farms and in remote communities good books for general reading ; pack-age
libraries provide students and club workers with material for debates and
club papers ; and the reference department of the traveling library system
supplies reference libraries on special subjects for study clubs. The books are
40 Community Service.
free to all, and any community may share the advantages of the traveling
library system by complying with the few regulations necessary to its efficient
management.
GENERAL TRAVELING LIBRARIES.
These libraries of thirty-five or forty volumes are made up of novels and
stories and of the best and most readable books on various subjects for adults
and children. They are shipped by freight in a box fitted with shelves so that
it can be used as a bookcase. A library may be kept for three months and, if
desired, renewed for one month longer. As soon as one library is returned
another containing a different collection of books is sent to take its place.
HOW OBTAINED.
Any community may obtain a traveling library by securing the signatures
of at least ten residents, who thus form a library association. The association
elects a president, a secretary, and librarian, and decides where the books
shall be kept. Ordinarily the post-office is the best place, as every one goes
there ; but if this is not feasible, the most desirable places are general stores,
schools, and, lastly, private homes.
The application for a traveling library must be made on the cards furnished
by the Library Commission. If it does not seem desirable to form a library
association, the application may be signed by five taxpayers or by the officers
of a Farmers' Union local.
The rules governing the loan of libraries are few and simple. Borrowers
agree to take good care of the books and that they shall be loaned without
charge to all responsible persons in the community ; to return the library
promptly ; and to pay the freight both from and to Raleigh.
AGRICULTURE AND COUNTRY LIFE.
The reference department of the traveling library system contains a very
full and good collection of books on agriculture and country life. Single
volumes are loaned to individuals ; upon request, a group Of six is included in
a general traveling library ; or ten books are loaned to a Farmers' Union local.
A special collection, called the Farmer's Library, contains twelve volumes of
the best and most readable books on agriculture for North Carolina farmers.
This Farmer's Library is loaned to five taxpayers or to a Farmers' Union local.
DEBATE LIBRARIES.
A debate library contains pamphlets, Government and State documents,
magazine articles, and several books on a given question. Literature dealing
with both the affirmative and negative sides of a question is always included
in every library. These libraries are not loaned to individuals, but to debating-societies
and to rural schools, and the application must be signed by the princi-pal
of a rural school or by the president and secretary of a debating society.

PROGRAM
COMMUNITY SERVICE
NORTH CAROLINA DAY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1915
SCHOOL AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT DAY
PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF
A MOONLIGHT SCHOOL IN EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT. TO TEACH
ALL ADULTS THEREIN TO READ AND WRITE, AS THE
FIRST AND MOST URGENT COMMUNITY SER-VICE
OF EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD
ISSUED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
RALEIGH. 1915
STATE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY SERVICE.
J. Y. JOYNER
W. A. Graham
E. K. Graham
Mrs. T. W. Lingle
Clarence Poe, Chairman
W. C. Crosby, Secretary
J. I. Foust
H. Q. Alexander
D. H. Hill
Paul Jones
J. Walter Long
COOPERATING WITH
The State Department of Education
The State Department of Agriculture
The State Farmers' Union
W. S. Rankin
T. B. Parker
W. J. Shuford
A. W. McAlister
PREFACE.
Chapter 164 of the Public Laws of 1901 directs that one day in each and
every year, to be called "North Carolina Day," shall "be devoted, by appropri-ate
exercises in the public schools of the State, to the consideration of some
topic or topics of our State history, to be selected by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction."
Instead of devoting the day to a consideration of a topic relating to the
past history of the State, I have deemed it wise to devote it again this year
to the consideration of the condition and the needs of the school and of the
community and to the formulation and inauguration of plans for their improve-ment.
These topics do not relate to the past history of the State, but they
are separable from its present and future history, and the consideration of
them is in keeping with the spirit of the law. "North Carolina Day" will be
celebrated, therefore, this year, on Friday, October 29, as "School and Neigh-borhood
Improvement Day"
In the program for the day special emphasis has been placed upon the re-duction
and elimination of adult illiteracy in every school district through a
"Moonlight School" as the first simple, definite, urgent community service to
be rendered.
The date has been fixed for Friday of the week immediately preceding No-vember,
which will be observed throughout the State as "Moonlight School
Month" in the hope that "North Carolina Day" may be used this year to pro-mote
this commendable movement and to complete the arrangements for a
moonlight school in each school district in which may reside any adults that
cannot read and write.
In counties that may have selected some other month as "Moonlight School
Month" it is suggested that "North Carolina Day" shall be observed on Friday
of the week immediately preceding the opening of the "Moonlight Schools."
To complete the organization and plans for conducting successfully the cam-paign
for wiping out adult illiteracy, a joint meeting of the County Committee
on Community Service and the County Teachers' Association in every county
is suggested, to be held before North Carolina Day and before the beginning
of Moonlight School Month. A suggested program for this joint meeting will
be found in this bulletin. County superintendents are urged to arrange at
once for this meeting.
Very truly yours,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, N. C, October, 1915.
5 C V H-"3j
GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION, DESIGNATING NOVEMBER AS
"MOONLIGHT SCHOOL MONTH."
Whereas there are in North Carolina 132,000 men and women, boys and girls,
over 10 years of age who cannot read and write—an army greater in number
than was sent by North Carolina to the service of the Confederate States—and
14 per cent of the white voters are reported in the census as illiterates, the
State in this particular standing practically at the bottom of the roll of
States ; and
Whereas it is largely because they lacked opportunity, largely because they
"had no chance," that these people, brothers and sisters of ours, are illiterate
today, growing up as they did in the years of war and reconstruction, and
the years of poverty that followed, before the State had provided adequate
schools or thoroughly realized its duty to provide facilities whereby every
child may "burgeon out all there is within him" ; and
Whereas the State has now come to a poignant realization of its duty not
only to provide schools for the boys and girls of today, but also to open the
doors of knowledge, of hope, and of opportunity for all who were neglected in
her days of poverty ; and
Whereas, while our illiterate people as a whole have bravely and persever-ingly
achieved usefulness, success, good citizenship, and high character, despite
their terrible handicap, we can but feel how infinitely greater would have been
their achievements, how infinitely richer their contribution to the life of our
Commonwealth, had they but had the keys of learning in their hands ; and
while our State through patient struggle has won its way out toward pros-perity
and civic progress, we can but reflect upon the far, far greater progress
we should make were all our people educated ; and
Whereas, through the "Moonlight School," as we are assured by the experi-ence
of Kentucky and by the experience of numerous counties in our own State,
the method is at hand as outlined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction
and the State Committee on Community Service, whereby we may carry the
immeasurable benefits of education to all who were neglected or neglectful in
their youth
:
Therefore, I, Locke Craig, Governor of North Carolina, do issue this my
proclamation to designate the month of November, 1915, as "Moonlight School
Month" in North Carolina, and set it apart to be devoted to the high purpose of
beginning a crusade to eliminate illiteracy from the State, trusting that the
movement then begun will not cease until every unlettered man and woman,
North Carolina Day. 5
boy and girl, is given access through reading to all the wealth of knowledge
now sealed to them, to the end that North Carolina, long before another census
year, may be a State without adult illiterates.
I, therefore, call upon the citizens, teachers and educational authorities of
every county to organize for the purpose of eliminating adult illiteracy from
that county ; and
I call upon the members of the Farmers' Union, the Press Association, the
Junior Order, the Federation of Women's Clubs, and all the other organizations
that have already enlisted in the cause, to be unfaltering in their splendid pur-pose
to carry it through to a triumphant conclusion ; and I call upon the com-mercial
organizations, boards of trade, civic clubs, religious organizations, Sun-day-
schools, and all organizations everywhere to give loyal, enthusiastic aid and
support to a movement whose success will promote the welfare of every indi-vidual
in the State and bring new confidence and courage to all the people
;
and I call upon every man and every woman who craves the sacred privilege
of being of greatest service to those in greatest need, to render here the infi-nite
service of bringing new freedom to a human mind.
Done in our city of Raleigh on the 9th day of October, in the year of our
Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen, and in the one hundred and
fortieth year of our American Independence.
JU_ UZ^^l
Governor
By the Governor:
J. P. Kerb,
Private Secretary.
MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS.
Letter to Superintendents and Teachers by State Superintendent of
Public Instruction.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY EVERY LINE OF THIS LETTER.
To Superintendents and Teachers:—I have been greatly gratified and deeply
touched by the enthusiastic and unselfish response of the superintendents and
teachers of the State to the call to volunteer for extra service in organizing
and conducting moonlight schools to teach our too long neglected adult illiter-ates
to read and write. When this bulletin went to press five thousand
teachers had already voluntarily pledged themselves in writing to teach with-out
compensation for at least one month in the moonlight schools of the State.
I have no doubt that if others shall be needed for the work, they, too, will
readily respond. Such a record should make every teacher of the State
prouder of his profession and should challenge the admiration, as it merits
the gratitude, of every good citizen.
This is educational work the success of which is necessarily dependent
mainly upon the active leadership and wise direction of superintendents and
teachers. The newspapers of the State, the fraternal and civic organizations
of every sort, like the Farmers' Union, the Junior Order of United American
Mechanics, the Women's Clubs, have pledged their active and enthusiastic sup-port
to this commendable campaign for the reduction and elimination of illit-eracy.
Rally all of these agencies to your assistance in organizing and direct-ing
the moonlight schools in your counties and school districts, and especially
in interesting and enrolling in your schools the men and women who cannot
read and write.
I beg to make the following suggestions
:
1. Get from the school census the names and addresses of all illiterates
in the district. With the aid of the school committee, and others well ac-quainted
with the residents of the district, verify, and, if necessary, correct
and complete this list.
2. See to it that every one of them receives a sympathetic, tactful, and earn-est
personal invitation to attend. Select the right person to give this personal
invitation to each—some neighbor, some friend, some fellow-member of church
or fraternal order, some one that has the confidence and friendship of the per-son
invited and knows how to approach him.
3. Many illiterates are naturally sensitive over their inability to read and
write. Respect their feelings. Let the invitation be extended and all the other
work of the schools for them be conducted in a spirit of sympathetic brother-hood,
good fellowship, and democratic equality. In word and act, avoid every-thing
that may smack of condescension, pity, smug superiority. These are our
brothers and fellow-citizens—in the eyes of God and the State as good as we
are—suffering under the handicap of illiteracy for which most of them are
not responsible, because in childhood they had no opportunity to go to school
Noeth Carolina Day. 7
or had nobody in authority over them sufficiently appreciative of its importance
to make them use the opportunity to go to school. It is our duty and our
privilege to help them help themselves to remove this handicap, for their own
sake and for the State's sake, before it is forever too late. In this spirit
should this work for them and with them be done.
4. By resolution adopted unanimously by the North Carolina Press Associa-tion
at its recent meeting, the newspapers of the State pledged themselves to
print, a week in advance, the lessons in reading and arithmetic for each week,
and to send free to each pupil of a moonlight school in the county for a month
a copy of the county paper containing these lessons. They also agreed to print
weekly a brief news letter from each neighborhood in which a moonlight school
is taught, containing interesting items about the school and other news of the
neighborhood, expressed in words and sentences comprehensible to adult be-ginners
in reading.
The county superintendent and the teacher of each school should furnish
the editor of the county paper the names and addresses of all pupils enrolled
and should make arrangements with some reliable person in each district to
send this letter to the paper each week. The pupils should be instructed to
bring the paper with them to school each night, that it may be used for reading
the lessons and the news letters, and for general supplementary reading.
Bulletins containing the lessons have been printed and furnished the county
superintendent for free distribution through the teachers, upon application, to
each pupil of a moonlight school ; but these cannot take the place of the county
paper. It is important that the county paper should be placed in their hands
from the first, to interest them, to stimulate their desire to learn to read, that
they may read their home paper like other folks and keep up with what is
going on in their county and in the world ; to cultivate from the first the use-ful
habit of reading their home paper ; to furnish, as they begin" to learn to
read, an abundant supply each week of the best and most interesting material
for supplementary reading. Most of them, as soon as they begin to acquire
the power to read, will read each week everything in the paper that they can
read. Each night extracts from the paper should be read aloud to the pupils
by the teacher, and as soon as possible by the pupils themselves. Most of the
pupils learning to read will become permanent subscribers to the county paper
and keep up their practice in reading. So far as I know, North Carolina is
the only State in which this cooperative plan with the county newspaper's in
teaching illiterates to read has been suggested or in which this generous offer
has been made by the papers. I am exceedingly anxious that it shall have a
fair trial, because I am confident that it will contribute greatly to the success
and to the permanency of this work.
5. Upon application to the State Superintendent, bulletins containing twelve
lessons—three a week for four weeks—in reading, in arithmetic, and in writ-ing,
prepared especially by the State Department of Public Instruction, with
the aid and criticism of some of the most experienced and successful primary
teachers of the State, some of whom had had experience in teaching adults,
will be furnished county superintendents in sufficient number to supply each
pupil enrolled with one copy. Superintendents are urged to order at once the
number needed, but not to order more than will be needed.
8 Community Service.
A teachers' edition of the same bulletin, containing valuable suggestions to
teachers for teaching the lessons, will be furnished through the county super-intendent
to each teacher of a moonlight school. The county superintendent
is urged to order at once from the State Superintendent's office the number
of teachers' bulletins needed for his county, and to send at once to the teacher
of each moonlight school a copy of the teachers' bulletin and a sufficient num-ber
of the pupils' bulletin to supply each pupil with a copy.
6. Copies of the bulletin containing the lessons by weeks will also be sent to
the editor of each county newspaper, but the county superintendent is ex-pected
and urged to see the editor personally, explain the plan to him, and
arrange for him separately by weeks, with the date of the publication of each,
the lessons to be published each week.
7. The county superintendent and teacher, in cooperation with the school
committee, the various community organizations, and others interested, are
urged to arrange some social entertainments in connection with the moon-light
schools, participated in by the pupils and by other citizens, to add to the
interest and happiness of the pupils, and to afford an opportunity for all to
get together and for an expression of interest and encouragement from out-siders.
The pupils of these schools should be made to feel at home from the
first, and also to feel that they are a part of the community in whom the other
part of the community are deeply interested.
8. November has been designated as Moonlight School Month in North Caro-lina,
because that seemed to be the most convenient month for the majority
of the counties of the State. If, however, some other month is more con-venient
for your county, select that month. Be sure, however, to select a
month when the weather is likely to be pleasant and the roads in good condi-tion.
During November, or such other month as may be selected, concentrate
public interest and effort upon this one work of teaching the adults of your
county to read and write. Rally to the work your newspapers, all organiza-tions
that have pledged their aid, and all other agencies that can be enlisted
for service. Have the papers full of it every week. See that they are fur-nished
with the facts and the news about the schools. Publish, before the
schools open, the number, but not the names, of adult illiterates by school dis-tricts.
Publish each week the number, but not the names, of those enrolled
in each school. As soon as possible, for the encouragement of others, publish
from week to week the number and, by their permission, the names of those
that* have learned to read and write and cipher. Most of this news can be
supplied weekly through the news letter from each school, and should also
be reported to the county superintendent by the teacher. The superintendent
and the teachers should keep in close touch with the paper and see that the
weekly material is promptly supplied.
9. Superintendents are urged to call a joint meeting of the County Teachers'
Association and the County Committee on Community Service, consisting of
the county superintendent, the county farm demonstration agent, the home
demonstration agents, the president or secretary of the County Farmers'
Union, editors of the county newspapers, the mayor of the county-seat, one
representative each of the Junior Order and of the Women's Clubs of the
county, two weeks before the beginning of Moonlight School Month in the
county, to ascertain the facts about the adult illiteracy of the county by dis-
North Carolina Day. 9
tricts as reported by superintendent and teachers, and to complete the organ-ization
and plans for pushing the campaign and the work for its elimination.
A suggested program for this meeting will be found on page 1(3.
10. The program for Community Service Day and North Carolina Day this
year centers around the moonlight school and the elimination of illiteracy
in every school district as the one most important community service to be
concentrated upon this year. It is suggested that this day be observed in
each county, on the Friday before the opening of the moonlight schools, and
that on that day at each schoolhouse all the details for opening and success-fully
conducting the school be completed.
11. Because of their onerous duties in the day schools and their inadequate
salaries, I did not feel that I ought to ask or that the community ought to
expect of the public school teachers more than one month's extra service at
night without compensation. It is hoped and expected, however, that before
the close of the month sufficient interest will be aroused and sufficient suc-cess
attained in many of the moonlight schools to warrant extending the
term, and that citizens and interested organizations and orders in the commu-nity
will arrange for such extension and for payment of the teacher or some
other person to continue the school, and also to provide, where feasible, instruc-tion
for other adults, besides illiterates, desiring additional instruction.
Very truly yours, j Y. Joyner,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Raleigh, N. C, October, 1915.
SECTION I.
GENERAL STATEMENT OF PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS.
Last year a week was set apart and observed throughout the State of North
Carolina as Community Service Week. The varied activities of the week were
devoted to Community Development and County Progress. Unfortunately, the
week appointed was late in the year, and bad weather seriously interfered
with the work ; nevertheless, the response was general and hearty. From one
end of the State to the other—in almost every nook and corner—despite the
rain, our people met and planned and worked in practical ways to make our
great State greater.
Although the results achieved last year in these varied activities were ex-tremely
gratifying, the State Committee on Community Service thinks it best,
this year, to make the work more intensive—in fact, to concentrate all the force
and power of the State organization upon one thing only, the elimination of
adult illiteracy in North Carolina ; and, instead of using a week for the pur-pose,
a whole month has been set apart, during which it is hoped that a moon-light
school will be conducted in every school district in the State where there
are grown people who cannot read and write.
Moonlight schools were at first looked upon as the sentimental "fad" of a
woman ; but the whole country has come now to take them very seriously.
From a small beginning in Kentucky four years ago, the movement has spread
like wildfire into a dozen States. The most remarkable thing about the his-tory
of the movement, however, is not its scope, but the tardy recognition of
the human and civic need that inspired it.
Although night schools have long been considered necessary—and have been
generously provided—for the hordes of illiterate foreigners that have reached
our shores under liberal immigration acts, it is only within recent months that
our people have been aroused to the urgent need of such schools for the illit-erates
of our adult native population—our own kith and kin—whose stout
and honest hearts, with a little knowledge, become the safest strongholds of
American patriotism and civic righteousness.
But this bulletin is not intended as an argument for moonlight schools nor
as a statement of our problem of adult illiteracy. It simply outlines the de-tails
of the plan for organizing and conducting these schools for one month, to
which is added the program and material for the observance of North Carolina
Day in the schools. Those who wish to see a statement of North Carolina's
problem of adult illiteracy, with an unanswerable argument for its elimina-tion,
should apply to the State Department of Education for free copies of the
bulletin, Adult Illiteracy in North Carolina and Plans for Its Elimination.
By proclamation of the Governor and recommendation of the State Superin-tendent
of Public Instruction, November of this year has been set apart as
"Moonlight School Month" in North Carolina. Every person in the State is asked
to join in this glorious work, but since it is very largely a work which the
local school forces must do, it is evident that it cannot be done successfully in
any county when the schools in that county are not practically all in session.
Therefore, flexibility is allowed for those counties which wish to begin the
work a little earlier or a little later than first of November. It is hoped that
North Carolina Day. 11
every county in the State will observe Moonlight School Month, beginning as
near the first of November as local conditions will permit and making it as
nearly uniform for the entire county as possible.
In waging the campaign for a successful Moonlight School Month in a
county, the first necessary step is a thorough organization of forces, both
county and local.
The county forces should consist of a County Committee on Community
Service whose duty it will be to have general oversight of the work in the
county, giving due publicity to the campaign, and arousing interest and enthu-siasm
for the cause in every way possible. This committee should consist of
the county superintendent (who should be secretary), the county farm demon-stration
agent, the home demonstration agent, the secretary or president of
the County Farmers' Union, editors of the county newspapers, the mayor of
the county-seat, one representative each from the Junior Order and the
Women's Clubs of the county. These should meet (if they have not already
done so) as early as possible and organize the committee and appoint such
additional members as may seem advisable. They should also appoint (if
they have not already done so) a local Committee on Community Service for
each school district in the county. The local committee should include the
teacher, the chairman of the local school committee, the president of the Local
Farmers' Union, and heads of other local fraternal orders, and two or three
other public-spirited citizens of the community, some of whom should be
women.
To give publicity to the movement in the county and to create interest and
arouse enthusiasm for it, a general meeting is planned, to be conducted by the
County Committee in conjunction with the County Teachers' Association, to
which will be invited all members of local Community Service committees,
members of Farmers' Union, Junior Order, Women's Clubs, and as many other
people as can be induced to attend. The program for the meeting will be
found on page 16 of this bulletin ; the date is, of course, left to the discretion
of the County Committee, but it is suggested that it be held not more than two
weeks before the beginning of Moonlight School Month in the county.
There will also be a meeting in each local school district, which will be held
on Friday immediately preceding the beginning of the first week of Moonlight
School Month in the county. At this meeting will be observed "North Caro-lina
Day," as prescribed by law, the program for which will be found on page
17, and following, of this bulletin.
The strategic and most difficult point in this crusade against adult illiteracy
will be to induce the illiterates to enroll in the night school and attend its
sessions regularly. They are timid and sensitive and many of them almost
utterly hopeless of being able to learn at their time of life, even if they should
avail themselves of the opportunity. They must, therefore, be approached with
great tact, sympathy, and considerate patience. If failure attends one effort
to enlist them, another should be resorted to ; no refusal must be accepted as
final. Quietly, without bluster or parade, and with tactful importunity they
must be won, enrolled, and taught.
A most important step before beginning a moonlight school is to make an
accurate survey of all adult illiterates in the district. This should be done
not only with the view of locating them, but reliable information should be
12 Community Service.
sought as to just what person or persons might be able to influence each one
most, and what motivation would be apt to be most powerful in stimulating them
to a desire to learn to read and write. There is no one who cannot be influ-enced
by the proper person or motive, if only the person or motive is known.
One principal reports that he visited a certain illiterate several times, trying
to enroll him in a moonlight school which was being conducted in the commu-nity,
but failed completely to get him in. He finally sent another illiterate
who had already entered the school—and he brought him to school that very
night. There is always some way to reach any person, if only we use judg-ment
and patience. It may be the love of a little child ; it may be the influ-ence
of a friend ; it may be the desire to write a letter to an absent loved one
;
it may be pride ; it may be the wish to read the Bible. But no hard and fast
rule can be given, for each one- is a law unto himself. The means by which
illiterates are brought into the school does not matter ; the all-important thing
is not to give up till you get them in and interested.
No curious spectators should be allowed to be present on nights when the
school is at work, most especially the first half of the "Month."
According to rather meager statistics gathered last year, the average age of
adult illiterates in North Carolina is 45. The expectation of life at that age, ac-cording
to the American Mortality Experience Table, is 24.54 years. Since 45 is
the average age, there must be many who are much younger than that, which
would materially lengthen the time when we should expect death to remove
them. From this it will be seen that if we wait for time alone to remove the
stigma of adult illiteracy from our State, a full half century will probably be
required. Can we afford to wait? A vigorous campaign for the moonlight
school is the only alternative, and that should be our answer to the question.
North Carolina Day. 13
TABLE A.
Percentage of Illiterate White Voters, by Counties, in Order of Rank.
Counties.
20
21
22
23
24
25
26 i
27 I
28
28
30
30 !
30 I
30
34
34 !
36 I
36 !
38 I
39
40
41
41 ;
43
43
43
46
47
;
48
49
50 I
New Hanover.
Mecklenburg.
.
Washington. __
Dare
Pasquotank _
.
Rowan
Craven
Vance
Graham
Iredell
Perquimans.
.
Richmond
Guilford
Durham
Pender
Bertie
Buncombe
Halifax
Alamance
Moore
Currituck
Anson
Henderson
Alleghany
Orange
Wake
Lee
Cabarrus
Forsyth
Hyde
McDowell
Transylvania.
Warren
Catawba
Pamlico
Cumberland..
Wayne
Randolph
Union
Gates
Beaufort
Hoke
Chatham
Edgecombe..
Haywood
Franklin
Gaston
Bladen
Granville
Lincoln
3
4.4
6.2
6.8
7.5
9.1
9.1
9.3
9.5
9.6
9.7
9.8
10.1
10.1
10.3
10.6
10.7
10.8
11
11.1
11.2
11.3
11.5
11.7
12
12
12.1
12.1
12.1
12.1
12.5
12.5
12.6
12.6
12.9
13
13.3
13.5
13.5
13.7
13.7
13.7
13.8
14
14.1
14.2
14.3
Counties.
50 Robeson
52 Rockingham..
53 Harnett
54 Chowan
55 Hertford
56 Northampton.
57 I Davidson
58 I Caswell
58 i Pitt
60 Brunswick
60 Cleveland
62 ; Carteret
63 Lenoir
63 i Onslow
65 Jones
66 Polk
67 ! Rutherford.. _.
67 i Watauga _.
100
Wilson
Macon
Martin
Montgomery
Tyrrell
Nash
Stanly
Alexander
—
Jackson
Sampson....
Ashe
Johnston. ...
Person
Scotland
Camden
Duplin
Swain
Clay
Burke
Caldwell
Greene
Davie.
Yadkin
Columbus...
Madison
Yancey
Cherokee
Wilkes
Surry .-
Mitchell
Avery
Stokes
PkU
14.3
14.4
14.5
14.9
15
15.1
15.2
15.3
15.3
15.4
15.4
15.6
15.7
15.7
15.8
16
16.1
16.1
16.3
16.4
16.9
16.9
17
17.2
17.3
17.5
17.5
17.5
17.6
17.6
17.6
17.9
18
18
18
18.1
18.2
18.8
18.9
19.2
19.6
20.1
21.7
21.7
21.9
22.7
23.2
24.1
24.5
26.9
14 Community' Service.
TABLE B.
Comparison of Total White Population and Total Number of White
Illiterates, Arranged by Counties, in Order of Rank.
5
Counties.
Total
White
Persons
Over
10
Years
Old.
Total
White
Illiterates
10
Years
Old
and
Over.
Percentage
White
Illiter-ates
10
Years
Old
and
Over.
The State 1,077,063
12,505
30,628
3,993
6,117
3,940
20,261
19,257
8,176
3,134
33,310
7,006
3,736
30,211
17,155
7,611
6,806
4,987
4,279
5,583
10,054
5,740
15,977
8,753
14,613
28, 102
8,088
5,266
8,190
7,674
9,374
3,111
4,678
17,203
3,693
10,359
24,755
12,871
4,469
10,990
14,682
12,780
16,490
9,413
9,233
14,384
5,364
18,850
4,651
9,083
3,839
132,189
403
1,398
237
373
279
1,485
1,445
622
238
2,606
559
298
2,445
1,048
625
556
413
357
469
866
508
1,489
838
1,401
2,749
794
524
829
776
943
318
479
1,819
392
1,111
2,702
1,419
492
1,218
1,625
1,417
1,867
1,075
1,048
1,652
623
2,188
543
1,067
458
12.3
1 3.2
? 4.6
3
4
Washington 5.9
6.1
5
6
Perquimans 7.1
7.3
7 Iredell 7.5
8 7.6
8 7.6
10 Guilford 7.8
11 8
11 8
13
14
Buncombe 8.1
8.2
14 8.2
14 Vance _________ __ _____ _______ 8.2
17 8.3
17 8.3
19 8.4
20 Halifax 8.6
21 Lee _ _________ 8.9
22 Alamance.,. _ __ ... ... ... _.._.. 9.3
33 Anson 9.6
23 9.6
25 Wake __ _ _ _ 9.8
as McDowell _ _ _ 9.8
27 Alleghany. _ . _____ _ _ _ 10
28 Moore 10.1
28 Richmond. _ ___ __ ._ ... __.___-. 10.1
28
31
Granville 10.1
10.2
31 Hertford..
.
10.2
33
33
Catawba
Chowan
10.6
10.6
35
36
Henderson
Forsyth. _.
10.7
10.9
37
37
Beaufort
Pamlico
11
11
39
39
39
Chatham
Cumberland
Pitt
11.1
11.1
11.1
42 Union 11.3
43
43
45
46
Franklin
Edgecombe
Cabarrus
Caswell
11.4
11.4
11.5
11.6
46
48
Randolph
Transylvania ...
11.6
11.7
48 Lenoir 11.7
50 Hyde 11.9
ISTorth Carolina Day. 15
TABLE B—Continued.
Counties.
51 Northampton.
52 Person
53 Bladen
53 Rockingham..
55 Harnett
55 Lincoln
57 Jones
58 Camden
59 Macon
60 Davidson
60 Haywood
62 Carteret
62 Robeson
64 Onslow
64 Wilson
66 Duplin
67 Sampson
68 Cleveland
68 Montgomery..
70 Gaston
71 Martin
72 Watauga
73
73
75
Alexander .
.
Tyrrell
Polk
75 Greene
77 Jackson
77 Nash
77 Rutherford
.
80 Stanly
81 Ashe
82 Davie
83 Johnston...
83 Burke
85 Brunswick..
86 Clay
87 Caldwell....
88 Swain
88 Yadkin
90 Scotland....
91 I Madison
92 Surry
93 Cherokee...
94 i Columbus..
94 Yancey
96 ; Stokes
97 Wilkes
Mitchell
6,919
7,147
6,944
18,709
11,130
10,150
3,258
2,511
8,056
18,394
14,241
8,470
17,518
6,951
11,682
11,647
14,151
16,925
7,857
20,262
6,457
9,311
7,542
2,650
4,566
4,842
8,260
14,073
16,933
12,237
12,831
8,100
21,730
13,431
6,357
2,675
12,751
6,376
10,111
5,104
13,530
18,774
9,411
13,583
8,199
11,965
19,399
11,519
832
870
854
2,302
1,391
1,270
409
318
1,032
2,387
1,846
1,144
2,361
960
1,614
1,654
2,021
2,435
1,130
2,934 !
943
1,375
1,120
394
690
731
1,260
2,147
2,590
1,887
2,005
1,270
j
3,476
2,153
1,029
436
2,130
1,149
1,822
948
2,535
3,573
1,830
2,644
1,601
2,447
4,214
2,575
^
1
o
3
s?
s
c\
North Carolina Day. 31
Moonlight Schools.
"MOONLIGHT" SCHOOLS IN KENTUCKY.
The object of the "moonlight" schools of Kentucky is the reduction of adult
illiteracy. The story of the attempt begun in September, 1911, by Mrs. Cora
Wilson Stewart, Superintendent of Schools in Rowan County, Ky., and her
associates, follows.
Having studied carefully the conditions of the county, Mrs. Stewart decided
to open night schools for adults on moonlight nights in the public sehoolhouses
of the county. She outlined her plan to the teachers and called for volunteers.
All the teachers of the county responded. On Labor Day, September 4, 1911,
these teachers visited the homes of the people throughout the county, explained
the plan, and announced that moonlight schools would be opened the next even-ing.
It was expected that the response would be slow, but more than 1,200
men and women from IS to 86 years old were enrolled the first evening. They
came trooping over the hills and out of the hollows, some to add to the meager
education received in the inadequate schools of their childhood, some to receive
their first lessons in reading and writing. Among these were not only illiterate
farmers and their illiterate wives, sons, and daughters, but also illiterate
merchants or "storekeepers," illiterate ministers, and illiterate lumbermen.
Mothers, bent with age, came that they might learn to read letters from absent
sons and daughters, and that they might learn for the first time to write to
them. Almost one-third of the population of the county was enrolled.
In September, 1912, a "moonlight school" teachers' institute was held in
Morehead, Ky., and the superintendent and teachers who had conducted the
first moonlight schools instructed others who wished to do work of this kind in
Rowan and adjoining counties, and in the fall of 1912 the movement spread to
eight or ten other counties, while the enrollment of adults in Rowan County
reached nearly 1,600.
The success of the men and women proves that it is not so difficult for illiter-ate
grown-ups to learn to read and write as is generally supposed. They learn
in a very short time, if given the opportunity. Reading, writing, and arithme-tic
are simple subjects when mature minds are concentrated upon them. One
man, aged 30, after four lessons in the evening school, wrote the county super-intendent
a legible letter. Another man, aged 50, wrote a legible letter after
seven nights attendance. A woman, aged 70, wrote a legible letter after eight
nights of study. These cases are, of course, exceptional ; but experience has
shown that a few weeks attendance at the night schools has been sufficient to
enable the adult pupils to pass over the dark line of illiteracy and to get into
the class of literates. Several succeeded in securing a Bible, which had been
offered as a prize by the superintendent to those who would learn to write a
letter during the first two weeks of the moonlight school term.
One of the significant facts brought out in this experiment is that adults of
limited education have taken advantage of the opportunity to return to school
and to increase their knowledge. Of the 1,600 adult pupils attending night
school during the second term, 300 were unable to read and write at all, 300
were from those who had learned in September, 1911, and 1,000 were men and
women of meager education.
32 Community Service.
The change in the attitude of the community toward the school, where the
night school has been undertaken, is in itself significant A school trustee thus
describes the change in his community
:
"I have lived in this district for 55 years, and I never saw any such interest
as we have here now. The school used to just drag along, and nobody seemed
interested. "We never had a gathering at the school, and nobody thought of
visiting the school. We had not had night school but three weeks until we got
together right. We papered the house, put in new windows, purchased a new
stovepipe, made new steps, and bought the winter's fuel.
"Now we have a live Sunday-school, a singing school, prayer-meeting once
each week, and preaching twice a month. People of all denominations in the
district meet and worship together in perfect unity and harmony, aged people
come regularly, and even people ~ from the adjoining county are beginning to
come."
Plap and Games.
PLAY AND RECREATION.
The following suggestions on play and recreation for "NOrth Carolina Day"
in every public school have been made by Richard T. Wyche, a former North
Carolinian, now President of the Story Tellers' League of America
:
Since a part of the programs for Community Service Week is given to recrea-tion,
what means shall we use that we may get the best results?
I propose that we utilize the deep race instincts for games, songs and story-telling.
All races have their folk-games, folk-songs, and folk-stories, a con-serving
and refining influence that has come down to us from the childhood of
the world.
What games shall we play? I would say the old games, rhythmic games,
group games, singing games, handed down by our ancestors. These are games
that all can play together, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and neighbors
;
in homes, school, or playgrounds. Baseball, basket ball, etc., are good, but
only a few can play, while the balance look on.
Most people who come to a picnic or social gathering play some kind of
games, but they do not always play to the best advantage. While the widest
range for free play should be allowed, several practical leaders who know well a
dozen or more good games, should take hold of the crowd, put the little chil-dren
in several groups, the middle sized in others, and grown people in still
another group. They soon could have five hundred people playing to the best
advantage and the place resounding with sounds of mirth.
Below I give a few of the old singing games that belong to a large group that
cannot be surpassed in their possibilities for musical, rhythmical, and dramatic
expression, blended with pathos and humor. I have tried them out in many
places and they are popular with young and old.
1. Looby Loo. All stand in circle and sing, "I put my right hand in, I put
my right hand out, I give my right hand a shake, shake, shake, and turn my-self
about." Then left hand, two hands, right foot, left foot, etc., all singing
and moving together.
North Carolina Day. 33
2. Jolly Miller. One in the center, others in couples, march round singing,
"Jolly is the miller that lives by the mill; the wheel goes round with a right
good will," etc. When right steps forward and left back, one in center seizes
partner. The one left over gets in the center and the game continues as at
beginning.
3. Farmers in the Dell.
4. We are marching round the village, go in and out the window, go forth
and choose your lover, etc.
5. Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow.
6. Pig in the parlor. "My mother and father are Irish, and I am Irish, too.
They put the pig in the parlor, for he is Irish, too. Right hand to your partner,
left hand to your neighbor," etc. Tune of "We'll Not Go Home Till Morning."
Other group games, but not sung, are
:
1. Cat and Mouse. 2. Fox and Geese. 3. Drop the handkerchief. 4. Pris-oner's
Base. 5. Relay races. 6. Tug of war (boys). 7. Helping. Take an
even number, say ten, let one be "It," the catcher. That leaves nine, who join
hands in twos. "It" can catch the odd one, but the group pairs and repairs so
fast that the odd one is never in the same place. When an odd one is caught
he becomes "It." Space for running is required. The game appeals to grown
people and children over 12.
After people have played games and by deep breathing renewed their blood
with oxygen, increased the circulation, eliminated poison, laughed together,
become free, social, and democratic, they are ready to sing together. Their
voices are strong and resonant.
Let them sit down and sing such songs as "Suwanee River," "Juanita," "Old
Black Joe," "Dixie," "Old Kentucky Home," "Annie Laurie," glee club songs
and negro melodies such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."
Story telling would probably be the most spontaneous and social way of
spending the remainder of the time. It might begin with the telling of short
anecdotes by a number and followed by folk stories, such as Uncle Remus,
history and hero stories, Indian stories, fairy stories, stories of love and
romance. The story telling should be sincere, natural, creative, and no ambi-tious
or cranky person should be permitted to monopolize the whole time.
Parents, teachers, and frequently children can contribute to the delight of the
story hour.
The fundamental principle for games, songs and story telling is that ex-pression
is life, suppression is death. Every child, mam and woman must
have some way of expressing his life and contributing to the joy of the occa-sion.
We grow by giving. That being the case, every school, home, and
church should have its playground, song and story hour. Every school should
have a playground of from two to ten acres, according to its size. Teachers
should play and lead the children in group games. It would greatly build up
their health and unite teacher and pupil in good fellowship. No teacher
should be permitted to teach who cannot or will not play.
34 Community Service.
Public Health.
COMMUNITY HEALTH SUGGESTIONS.
1. See that the school is properly ventilated with window ventilators and
the room heated with a jacketed stove as described in the bulletin prepared
by the State Department of Public Instruction and furnished upon request to
any interested person. Also get rid of the common drinking cup and roller
towel, substituting for these conveyors of infection the suggestions of the
above mentioned publication.
2. See that the school well is properly constructed and that the school is pro-vided
with sanitary privies as described in the bulletin issued on School Build-ings
and Grounds, prepared by the State Department of Education.
3. Appoint a committee to arrange, with the advice and assistance of the
State Board of Health, for a community meeting early next spring to consider
measures for the relief or eradication of the fly nuisance.
4. Inquire into the teaching of subjects of sanitation and hygiene in the
school, and unless these subjects are emphasized, insist that the principal of
the school give them the important place in the classes that they deserve.
5. Appoint a committee to consider the problem of a community physician.
Write the State Board of Health for particulars.
6. As a means to all of the above, and as the first essential and remedy
necessary for the application of all other remedies, work to- secure a whole-time
county health officer in your county, which is the best step in the direc-tion
of efficient county health administration, and from which all communi-ties
of the county will profit and by which the above sanitary suggestions for
your own community may be more surely and easily carried out. See plan
discussed in Bulletin No. 2 of the State Board of Health. If you are inter-ested
in this matter, write for this bulletin at once and for any further infor-mation
that may be desired.
A MORE EFFICIENT TYPE OF RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
I. Purposes.
1. To give country children a broader and more intelligent acquaintance
with country life.
2. To give them a more genuine appreciation of and satisfaction with country
life.
3. To give them more adequate training and preparation for a more remun-erative,
more effective, and a more satisfying life in the country.
4. To develop a rural community life that is industrially more effective, and
that is socially, morally, and intellectually more efficient.
II. Method.
1. To increase the territory of the one-teacher school district from approxi-mately
nine square miles to twenty or twenty-five square miles.
North Carolina Day. 35
2. To provide a school site of not less than six or eight acres, thereby fur-nishing
ample space for playground and demonstration farm work.
3. A three-room school building with ample auditorium—building comforta-ble,
attractive, equipped with comfortable seats, modern blackboards, maps,
globes, and well selected library for pupils and teacher.
4. Three competent and well trained teachers with male principal.
5. The community furnishes permanent home for principal and with him his
two assistant teachers.
6. Principal gives two years of high school instruction, supervises and di-rects
the work of his two assistants through the observation of their work,
private conferences, well planned and regularly conducted teachers' meetings.
7. Principal organizes boys in the school above fifth grade into a Boys' Farm-life
Club. By means of text-books on agriculture, agricultural bulletins and
the school demonstration farm, the boys are given practical instruction in
better farming, better business, and better living upon the farm. For the
particular crop grown upon the school farm, a specially prepared course of
study is provided, furnishing a continuous series of lessons and activities
throughout the year.
8. After the school closes, the Farm-life Club meets at their school farm
once or twice each week at the call of the principal or county farm demon-strator,
to study the particular needs of the crop at that time and to do the
cultivation necessary.
9. The first assistant to the principal organizes the girls in the school above
the fifth grade into a Home-life Club, giving them practical instruction on
their school demonstration plat in making the home garden, preserving the
products for home use and for marketing. They are also given practical in-struction
in raising better poultry, in sewing, cooking, home sanitation, and
hygiene. For their work in growing tomatoes, a specially prepared course of
study is provided, furnishing a series of continuous lessons and activities dur-ing
the year.
10. The second assistant to the principal organizes the boys and girls in the
school above fifteen years of age and the young men and young women of the
community into a singing club. She directs and supervises their work and
aids them in preparing musical entertainments to be given at the school several
times during the school term. This teacher also organizes the young women
and the mothers of the community into a Betterment Association for making
more attractive the school building and school grounds. Through tactful sug-gestions
she will aid the women in their planning to make their individual
homes more beautiful and more desirable.
11. The county farm demonstrator meets with the principal and members
of the Farm-life Club two or three times each month, takes an active part in
their class-room discussions, in their experiments, and gives them the advan-tage
of his practical skill and knowledge in their actual work upon their school
farm. In a word, he is an effective assistant to the principal and the Farm-life
Club studies, and school farm work.
12. If the principal does not own his home in the community, and is absent
during the summer months, then the members of the Farm-life Club elect
36 Community Service.
the county farm demonstrator to become their leader during the summer, and
he calls them to meet once or twice each week to study the needs of their
crop and to do the cultivation necessary.
13. The home demonstration agent is to be the first assistant and be to the
members of the Girls' Club what the county farm demonstrator is to the princi-pal
and to the Boys' Farm-life Club. She will be present at the weekly meet-ings
of the Girls' Club two or three times each month and take an active inter-est
in their discussions of home-life problems. In a word, in this work she is a
valuable assistant in the school.
14. The auditorium is the common meeting place for the people of the entire
community. In this auditorium are held neighborhood spelling matches, decla-mations,
and debates. Here are given musical entertainments, illustrated lec-tures,
addresses on topics of most vital interest to the community. Here the
mothers of this larger community plan improvements in the school building
and school grounds, plan improvements in the beauty and efficiency of their
individual homes, and here the members of the Farmers' Union meet to discuss
better farming, better business, and better living upon the farm.
Rural Women's Clubs.
(1) DEVELOPING A MODEL RURAL COMMUNITY.
The housekeepers of Salemburg, Sampson County, are organized into a
strong Matrons' Club, which is doing very significant work in the way of pro-moting
home industries, household management, and general uplift work.
The entire membership is divided into several working committees, each of
which is visiting every home in its section of the community for the purpose
of soliciting the cooperation of every family in the health campaign, and these
committees are systematically caring for the sick and suffering in their re-spective
territories. Very recently the Woman's Club has organized the young
ladies of Salemburg into a branch club, the prime purpose of which is to
promote the cultural side of life, and to cooperate with the older Woman's
Club in its efforts to establish a community library. It is expected that the
young ladies will in turn lend their influence and aid to the young girls, who
have a very interesting industrial club. The women have caught the vision
and have gone about their part of the work in a way that must give back
results.
The young men have built a tennis court, organized a baseball team and
also a local band, which will soon be in shape to furnish creditable music for
the public gatherings in the community. The social life of Salemburg has
, been greatly stimulated by the general quickening of community life, and the
young people are constantly making opportunities to enjoy life through whole-some
and innocent means.
—
North Carolina Education.
(2) WOMEN'S MARKETING CLUBS.
Beginning with Canning Club work among the girls of our State, Home
Demonstration work has gradually increased and broadened until it includes
North Carolina Day. 37
the older women as well. Mothers, aunts, and even grandmothers have eome
to realize the benefits of getting together and doing things for the betterment
of home and community.
Some remarkable results have attended the employment of a trained woman
to supervise work among rural women and girls, this having been made possi-ble
by increased county appropriations. In one community the women who
were individually selling eggs, poultry, and butter at unprofitable prices and
to fitful markets were brought together by the county agent, instructed in
grading and packing eggs and in making sausage, and taught how to mold
butter and just what constituted a high-grade pack. In consequence, last
winter these women got into communication with Raleigh and Wilmington
housewives and were able to dispose of these products at a satisfactory profit.
The city housewives also felt satisfied, and are encouraging these country pro-ducers
to continue the mutually helpful cooperative marketing. Rural women
thus organized are fast learning the value of a standard, salable article, as
products sold through the organization must conform to standards laid down
as to quality, grade, and pack.
Women have also become interested in fancy preserves and jellies and in
making the commercial packs, just as the advanced Canning Club girls are
doing. In Cleveland County, where there was very little canning before,
75,000 empty tin cans have been shipped this year to women and girls who are
either club members or who have been induced to can through seeing the work
of the club girls.
A Sampson County agent, in a weekly report, has the following to say
:
"I succeeded, after much persuasion, in getting a tenant woman on
our place to join the club this year, and assisted her in getting cans
and a canner, and it has opened the eyes of the neighborhood and
aroused their enthusiasm as nothing else has. That woman has
canned between seven and eight hundred cans and jars for herself and
others. Her friends have carried fruit and vegetables to her for fif-teen
miles to be canned. I am now trying to get them interested in
organizing a woman's 'Help One Another' Club, and in that way help
them to become better housekeepers, better cooks, and better business
women."
School Farms.
CULTIVATING SCHOOL FARMS IN WAKE COUNTY.
One of the most interesting developments in North Carolina school work
has been that of the school farm idea as worked out by Superintendent Z. V.
Judd, of Wake. The story of that development has been made the subject
of a Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Education, a copy of which
should be in the hands of every county superintendent in the State. It
can be secured free by writing to the Commissioner of Education, Washing-ton.
D. C.
The school farm is at or near the schoolhouse. It is from two to ten acres
in size and is worked by a community organization under the direction of a
38 Community Service.
farm superintendent. The proceeds go to the school. Such crops are planted
as are adaptable to the climate and soil and can easily be cultivated by women
and children as well as men. In Wake cotton has been planted more than all
other crops.
The purpose of the school farm is its most significant feature. It is three-fold
:
First, to give the school a new meaning as a factor in the socialization of
rural life ; second, to vitalize school life by the introduction of new practical
subjects, or by improving the method of teaching old subjects, or by both;
third, to supplement the school fund.
The results in Wake have been striking. In seven years the school farms
have grown in number from one to twenty-four ; in number of persons work-ing
in one year, from a handful at Holly Springs to 2,136; in money returns,
from $118.28 to $1,550.20. The total clear financial returns from these farms
during the seven years amounts to more than $7,000. The improvement of
social conditions in the school farm communities has been marked.
Closely allied with the school farm movement in Wake County is the Better-ment
Work. The Betterment Association has a membership of over eight
hundred. Last year the contributions of this association to the public schools
amounted to only a little less than $10,000.
—
From 1914 Community Service
Bulletin.
School Libraries.
HOW ONE RURAL SCHOOL LIBRARY HELPED THE
NEIGHBORHOOD.
The library of Bunn High School during the session of 1910-11 added nearly
a hundred books to an already well stocked case, and, what is more important,
more than tripled the circulation as compared with previous years.
At the previous commencement some funds had been raised by giving a
play, and this sum had been wisely reserved for library purposes. So we at
once ordered a large bookcase of our own design, costing $15. It had shelf
capacity for more than twice the number of books in hand (about 200). In
placing the books in the new case we catalogued them, using a very simple
card system by which we were enabled to tell at a glance what books were
in the library, the name of the author, and the title. We also arranged an-other
card system for circulation purposes. Every child in the school was
given a card, which was kept for him in the case, and each one was then made
to feel that the card gave him a special right to get a book just when he
wanted it. The demand picked up at once. Needless to say, the requests for
books were always promptly attended to by the person in charge—and that
person was always to be found, too.
Like most rural libraries, ours was woefully wanting in books that appeal
to children. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" was in its proper
place, but we needed Mother Goose, fairy tales, animal stories, etc. We
ordered these ; we already had Uncle Remus ; and, besides, we ordered fifty
copies of five-cent classics, published by the Owen Publishing Company of
North Carolina Day. 39
Dansville, N. Y. The arrival of these little books was joyfully greeted by
the children, and there was hardly a pupil in school who did not read as many
as six of them.
Money for buying new books was raised in many ways. The commence-ment
play has already been mentioned, and there were contributions from indi-viduals
both of money and of books. Then, too, advantage was taken of the
funds provided by State and county for supplementary libraries. The arrival
of any new books was always announced publicly, usually at the Sunday-school
service. The Sunday-school meets in the schoolhouse and affords an excellent
opportunity for distribution of books.
READING ROOM FOR YOUNG MEN.
We now had a circulating library, but the interest was confined chiefly to
the pupils ; and a rural library to be a success must extend its usefulness
to every individual in the community. The problem of interesting young men
not in school is always a most difficult one, and that which we think ought to
attract often drives away. With this problem in mind, we determined to
supplement the library in a way that would interest the young men. A read-ing
room naturally suggested itself, and we at once put in an order to the
amount of about $14 for a number of standard weekly and monthly maga-zines,
such as the Outlook, World's Work, Everybody's Magazine, Success,
American Boy, Youth's Companion, Progressive Farmer, and others of like
class. There were also included all of the free bulletins of the State and Na-tional
departments covering the subjects of agriculture, home economics, and
health. It was decided to have the reading room open at night, as young men
in the country work from "sun to sun." So announcements were made in the
Sunday-school—to which everybody goes—that a reading room for the benefit
of all the young men of Bunn community and surrounding country would be
open every Tuesday and Friday nights. All were invited to come, and in
their working clothes, too. This plan has worked well.
All the magazines and papers are filed in the bookcase, and, for the benefit
of the women and stay-at-homes, the children are allowed to take any of them
home, except the current numbers, and to keep them for a few days. Thus the
reading matter circulates and the usefulness of the library is felt and appre-ciated
throughout the community.
—
J. M. Broughton, Jr., in 1914 Community
Service Bulletin.
Traveling Libraries.
HOW TO GET ONE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY.
North Carolina maintains through its Library Commission at Raleigh a sys-tem
of free traveling libraries. General traveling libraries furnish people liv-ing
on farms and in remote communities good books for general reading ; pack-age
libraries provide students and club workers with material for debates and
club papers ; and the reference department of the traveling library system
supplies reference libraries on special subjects for study clubs. The books are
40 Community Service.
free to all, and any community may share the advantages of the traveling
library system by complying with the few regulations necessary to its efficient
management.
GENERAL TRAVELING LIBRARIES.
These libraries of thirty-five or forty volumes are made up of novels and
stories and of the best and most readable books on various subjects for adults
and children. They are shipped by freight in a box fitted with shelves so that
it can be used as a bookcase. A library may be kept for three months and, if
desired, renewed for one month longer. As soon as one library is returned
another containing a different collection of books is sent to take its place.
HOW OBTAINED.
Any community may obtain a traveling library by securing the signatures
of at least ten residents, who thus form a library association. The association
elects a president, a secretary, and librarian, and decides where the books
shall be kept. Ordinarily the post-office is the best place, as every one goes
there ; but if this is not feasible, the most desirable places are general stores,
schools, and, lastly, private homes.
The application for a traveling library must be made on the cards furnished
by the Library Commission. If it does not seem desirable to form a library
association, the application may be signed by five taxpayers or by the officers
of a Farmers' Union local.
The rules governing the loan of libraries are few and simple. Borrowers
agree to take good care of the books and that they shall be loaned without
charge to all responsible persons in the community ; to return the library
promptly ; and to pay the freight both from and to Raleigh.
AGRICULTURE AND COUNTRY LIFE.
The reference department of the traveling library system contains a very
full and good collection of books on agriculture and country life. Single
volumes are loaned to individuals ; upon request, a group Of six is included in
a general traveling library ; or ten books are loaned to a Farmers' Union local.
A special collection, called the Farmer's Library, contains twelve volumes of
the best and most readable books on agriculture for North Carolina farmers.
This Farmer's Library is loaned to five taxpayers or to a Farmers' Union local.
DEBATE LIBRARIES.
A debate library contains pamphlets, Government and State documents,
magazine articles, and several books on a given question. Literature dealing
with both the affirmative and negative sides of a question is always included
in every library. These libraries are not loaned to individuals, but to debating-societies
and to rural schools, and the application must be signed by the princi-pal
of a rural school or by the president and secretary of a debating society.